Short fused Yordles
by LoveableWeirdo
Summary: It's an explosion of love in the institute of war, or is it? Ziggs, Rumble and Teemo will fight it out to get the girl, who will win? Definitely not Veigar.
1. A Lit Fuse

**Short-fused Yordles**

Ziggs's laughter echoed in the empty halls of the Institute of War, it was six in the morning and he had been working all night. Hardly any champions stayed in the Institute and as a champion he was offered everything he needed for his work. Sparks from his welder constantly hit his face; underneath his goggles his eyes were concentrated on making sure the fuse didn't accidentally light up. For him, just constantly working and improving his hexplosives gave him great joy, a wide grin etched on to his face as he continued his work. His bombs covered the entire room, ranging in different sizes, some as small as marbles and one as big as a zorb ball, different blueprints pasted on to the walls, some plans scribbled out because they looked to be ineffective or useless, different coloured wires scattered all over the floor and a large toolbox that took up an entire corner of the room, full of weird gadgets to help aid him in his bomb-making. The first sign of sunlight broke through the tiny gaps of the curtain-covered windows in his 'workshop' the light caught his attention for a moment but that was enough for his hand to move slightly towards the fuse, the fuse lit and his happy grin turned into one of concern, he frantically looked around the room for the emergency water bucket but the fuse was too small and he knew that if it exploded in his room, it could cause mass panic.

'Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh!' he thought to himself, running around in circles.

He finally noticed the open window and pushed the curtains away, throwing the dangerous bomb outside the window, just as he threw the bomb he couldn't resist to shout,

"Bomb ho!"

The bomb exploded before it even hit the ground but the explosion and the shockwave shook his room, Ziggs looked out the window and saw the damage his new bomb had caused, his same grin etched across his face turned to that of content then bursted into laughter. He took off his goggles and rubbed his eyes, dark bags had formed from the lack of sleep he'd been getting during the past few days. He climbed on to his bed or what was left of it due to an unrelated incident and collapsed on his pillow, his alarm clock immediately started to beep continuously and his muffled groans could be heard from his pillow. He slammed the snooze button, got up in his usual attire apart from his goggles which he held on to and headed for the mess hall, he was surprised with the number of champions that had already arrived to eat here of all places, the Institute didn't make the best tasting food but it was nutritious and filling if nothing else. Ziggs looked around just to see if any of the other Yordles had already shown up and gave an unsatisfied look when he noticed a little blue yordle with a Mohawk eating his breakfast on a nearby table, Ziggs didn't get along with Rumble, they were friendly terms at first, both brilliant at what they did and both helped each other when one had reached a bump until Rumble disagreed with attaching his bombs on his beloved robot, Ziggs tried to explain that he could easily increase the machine's firepower but every time Rumble turned down his ideas not even bothering to look at his brilliant designs. Ziggs also knew that he had the worst temper out of all the yordles and wasn't too friendly with any of the humans either, he almost seemed like such a pitiful yordle, a loner, something really uncommon with other yordles. The only yordle he could sort-of talk to was Tristana and it was laughable how he couldn't even form the simplest of sentences when trying to talk to her and often garbled up his words. After getting his 'nutritious' breakfast, someone tapped him on the back just as he was trudging his way over to Rumble, he turned his head to see a blue skinned yordle with white hair and someone who actually appreciated the fine art of explosives, she smiled back at him but pointed at the bags that had formed under his eyes.

"You've been staying up late again haven't you?" the female yordle asked sternly. "One of these days you're going to tire yourself out and when we're on the Rift you'll just collapse from the exhaustion!"

"Lay off Trist, I'm fine. Don't worry about it!" Ziggs reassured her; she didn't look convinced at all and stared him down. "Okay so maybe I should've gotten more sleep but I may have just made a breakthrough with my bombs, increasing the blast radius by 72%!"

Ziggs walked over to the table where Rumble was sat and sat on the far end of the long table; Tristana shook her head and followed him, sitting beside him. He noticed that she hadn't look like she had breakfast yet, becoming more apparent when her stomach made low grumblings and handed her an apple from his tray which she gladly accepted, she explained that the fruits were the only food in the Institute that wasn't too disgusting for consumption. From the corner of his eye, Ziggs could feel someone staring at them, he already knew who it was and turned to look at Rumble and gave him a small wink, Rumble didn't seem to take kindly to that as he gritted his teeth from the other end of the table, Ziggs found it hilarious that without his giant mechanized death-trap Rumble was a shrimp compared to the other yordles and it looked like he was biting the table in anger. Ziggs just quietly laughed at him and turned towards Tristana who had no idea why he was laughing; to her, Ziggs laughing was just him being him.

"So when are we trying out those puppies?" she asked, taking another bite of her apple. "Should we do it today or is tomorrow good for you?"

"Excuse me?" Ziggs asked confused with her question.

"C'mon, let me join in! I know you like to throw them at random objects and make them go boom! I could probably even help you with them, I still owe you for doing maintenance on my cannon after all." she insisted.

Ziggs looked up and gave a perplexed look, he did remember checking out her cannon but the only maintenance he did was decreasing the size of the muzzle so that it fired more accurately and gave her explosive rounds instead of the normal ones, nothing much to be thankful about. The idea of other people testing out his bombs to find faults in them didn't intrigue him; Ziggs would rather test out his own products. In the past, he had asked the great Heimerdinger at one point but he gave a very hasty excuse about why he couldn't do it, if he was going to have other yordles testing them out he would at least like one with some knowledge on explosives and not just an 'enthusiast' like Tristana. Ziggs looked over to his food, took a mouthful of some weird coloured oatmeal then turned his attention towards her.

"Don't you have anybody else to go do… anything with?" he asked after swallowing the oatmeal, his voiced muffled by the thick oatmeal.

"Awww please let me join you? I'm not that close with Poppy and Lulu is always hanging out in the forest talking to those squirrels." She pleaded with Ziggs.

"What about Teemo? Aren't you two 'together'?"

Tristana punched Ziggs on the arm, she gave an embarrassed look when he mentioned Teemo; Ziggs being who he is couldn't help but grin at her expression which got him another firm punch on the arm. He cringed, rubbing his arm to stop the pain.

"I told you and everybody this before; it's not like that between me and him! We're just friends and that's it. Besides, he gets scared when near explosions for some reason, gets all stiff and nervous around 'em."

"Uh-huh, sure." Ziggs said in an unamused tone. "But the way you reacted sure makes your guys' relationship look more suspicious. Everybody can see that there's a 'spark' between you two, like a beautifully lit fuse on a giant bomb of romance!"

Tristana was about to punch him again and caused him to flinch, he instinctively covered his arm with his tray dropping most of his breakfast on the floor, he waited for the punch but she drew back her fist, looking dejected.

"Why can't people just leave me alone about him?" she asked rhetorically.

"Maybe it's because you're a tomboy who loves carrying big guns and is not the least bit feminine? And since you don't talk to other male yordles people just assume rumours as facts." Ziggs suggested, almost mocking her. "Then again, people are naturally stupid so I wouldn't worry much about it; it'll all 'blow' over eventually."

Ziggs realised he didn't really know anything about her, only exchanging a few words with each other, it was sort of embarrassing to say all of that to her but also necessary. Tristana gave him a weak smile but still looked down-hearted, Ziggs groaned and nodded to himself knowing it was the right thing to do, he was too nice of a guy when there's a sad girl in front of him.

"H-Hey Tristana… do you want to go throw bombs at some dummies tonight?" he asked, in his mind he wanted her to say no or say she had other plans but that's just him being selfish.

Her eyes suddenly brightened up and she smiled at Ziggs, he did the same, her expression gave him the indication that he had done the right thing. She hugged him tightly but it was unexpected for Ziggs and he felt like he was being strangled, Tristana was definitely stronger than she looked; Ziggs pushed her away gasping for air while she giggled at his reaction.

"You know, you've got really cute eyes when you don't wear your goggles." Tristana complimented him. "It's a shame about those bags though. I'll see you for our date tonight."

Tristana got up and started to walk towards the lobby, Ziggs eyes was wide in surprise and his smile dropped, he thought he just heard that it was a 'date', he shook his head at the notion and hoped that she said something else, he had no interest with romance, his only love was for the fiery dazzles that bombs could give but if she really was in love with him he couldn't just tell her that to her face when she looked so sad before, she even complimented his eyes which even he knew were not 'cute'. Ziggs had to know what he got himself into; he ran after her and grabbed one of her hands before she could even make it halfway towards the exit.

"Wh-What do you mean a date?!" his eyes in bewilderment, his voice sound almost panicky.

"It's just a joke silly, geez," She answered. "Just think of tonight as two… friends, having fun and making things explode okay?"

"O-Okay…"

Ziggs still sounded unsure but he gave her an awkward looking smile and a thumbs-up, she did the same thing and she continued to walk towards the lobby whilst Ziggs stood in the middle of the mess hall, some champions looked over at him and snickered, he heard the word 'cute' used a lot whilst others ignored the conversation between the two yordles. After Tristana was out of sight Ziggs took a deep breath then screamed out loud, shocking some of the champions who were still eating, he noticed that the outlaw, Graves, spilt his coffee and Ziggs laughed quietly at him. He suddenly felt someone tap him on his back again, he turned only to be met with a blue fist, Rumble struck him on the cheek and knocked him down, it caused quite a stir and some champions still in the mess hall stopped eating to watch the fight that had broken out. Rumble grabbed Ziggs by the collar, his fist still clenched. Ziggs could see Rumble's anger but he didn't feel the same way, he felt more annoyed than angry at him, Ziggs knows why he's acting like this but decided not to take any action in front of the others. He pushed away from Rumble, who stumbled backwards; Ziggs stood up and looked down at Rumble, giving an air of authority over the blue yordle, they stared each other down until Rumble motioned the two to move to a different part of the Institute, Ziggs agreed and followed the blue yordle away from the mess hall and outside to the entrance of the Institute. Once outside, Rumble stopped for a moment before turning around quickly to deal another punch to Ziggs, Ziggs knew it was coming and he wasn't going to fall for the same cheap move twice and easily side-stepped the punch, sticking his foot out and causing Rumble to trip and land on his front.

"You!" Rumble shouted as he dusted himself off. "What did you and Tristana talk about?"

"She wanted to talk about you." Ziggs lied looking serious, stopping himself from smiling.

"R-Really?" asked Rumble, surprised and secretly glad that Tristana noticed him.

"Oh yeah, she talked about how weird you are, how you have to rely on a giant machine to do your fighting, about your height, your weak upper body strength, your 'short fuse', how you're not as smart as you think you are…" Ziggs continued to list and emphasised Rumble's many different faults, with each one making Rumble even angrier.

"Stop lying to me Ziggs!" Rumble argued. "Tristana would never say that stuff about me!"

"Oh? And how would you know?" Ziggs asked, still feeling more superior to him. "You can barely talk to her and you fail to form even the simplest of sentences when you're around her, it's quite sad to watch really."

"Sh-Shut up! Y-You don't know what you're talking about, now tell me, what were you two getting so buddy-buddy about?" he asked, sounding worried though still looked angry.

"I never knew you were the jealous type Rumble," Ziggs said, sighing loudly. "Okay I'll tell you, me and Tristana have a 'date' tonight."

"WH-WHAT?!" he shouted not believing what Ziggs had just told him. "No way, I don't believe you, what would she see in a bomb freak like you?!"

"And what would she see in a badly-tempered, shrimpy little yordle who needs a mechanised death-trap to fight his battles for him like you?" Ziggs wittily replied.

Rumble just gritted his teeth; his face was red from anger and his eyes green with jealousy at Ziggs, he couldn't think of a response to throw back in Ziggs' face. Ziggs shrugged and started to leave Rumble alone not wanting to discuss anything with him any further.

"If you want to settle things then I'll meet you in the Rift and make it an official match." Ziggs proposed as he headed back inside.

As Ziggs disappeared from Rumble's sight, his head began to cool down, he was definitely going to fight him today that's for certain, maybe if he hurts Ziggs enough then he won't make it to his date with Tristana and he could come in and take his place. Rumble chuckled silently, his eyes full of evil intent for today's match, he hurriedly ran back inside to finish some modifications on Tristy when somebody called out for his name, he knew who the voice belonged to, it made him feel sick in his stomach that "he" would call out his name so casually, it was someone he could call his 'rival' when it came to Tristana, the biggest obstacle to her heart. He turned and plastered on a big smile to Teemo, scuttling over to him and waving his hand, he looked happy to see Rumble but the feeling wasn't mutual.

"Hey, Teemo!" Rumble in an obviously fake cheery tone. "What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if you have seen Tristana today." Teemo asked.

The scout looked pleased with himself but Rumble didn't care that much. He was, however, interested why Teemo would ask him if he'd seen Tristana, it felt as if Teemo was also looking down on him just like Ziggs, he decided to ignore his feelings of hate for the two and nonchalantly ask what Teemo wanted.

"Nope, can't say I have Teemo." Rumble lied.

"O-Oh, well… tell me if you've seen her okay? I want to ask her something important."

Rumble's ears twitched for a second, hearing information he could use to manipulate a certain someone, he decided to continue this farce and looked intrigued with what Teemo had to say.

"So what are you going to ask her eh, Teemo?" prodded Rumble. "We're pals right? I'll keep it a secret, I promise."

"Well I was going to ask Tristana to become my girlfriend officially, we're pretty close and we have fun together so, why not right?"

"O-Oh sure… except, I've been hearing some other rumours floating around about her, you want to know about it?"

Teemo looked shocked from what Rumble had just said but also nodded his head, in his mind Rumble was thinking how simple of a fool Teemo was; he will definitely be a good pawn for today.

"I heard that Tristana has a date with Ziggs tonight." Rumble whispered in Teemo's ear.

"…Is that so?" asked Teemo, his voice sounded strange. "I think I should go ask her myself, just in case."

"I know it's hard to believe but I have proof, see, Ziggs was challenging any yordle to come fight him one on one on the Rift, seems he's wanting to prove something to a certain someone," Rumble lied. "I'm not too interested myself but I want to at least give him a good smack in the teeth for being so cocky."

"I see," Teemo said, rubbing his chin. "I think I might just take him up on that challenge then. See you around Rumble!"

"Good luck Teemo!" cheered Rumble as he watched Teemo scuttle inside the Institute, once out of sight Rumble's face shifted his smile turned to an evil grin, his eyes narrowed down and sighed in relief.

'What a useful fool you are.' He thought, whistling a happy tune as he walked back inside the Institute.


	2. Explosive Challenge

**Short-fused Yordles Chapter 2**

Ziggs stood in the centre of mid-lane waiting for Rumble to show himself for the fight, someone as proud as Rumble wouldn't back down after he made a proposal like that and Ziggs continued to keep his guard up. Rumble's robot may be slow but it packs a punch and is full of surprises, it didn't help that the fog in the Rift was thicker than usual today, putting Ziggs even more on edge for a pre-emptive strike. He didn't even fully understand why he proposed to fight Rumble, maybe he just wanted to shut him up about Tristana or maybe Rumble's attitude towards others had finally sent Ziggs over the line and it was time to teach the shrimpy yordle a lesson on manners, whatever the case, Ziggs was definitely going to make it hurt for him bringing an array of different bombs just for the fight, some may think it was to excessive for a one-on-one but he wasn't taking chances and gripped tightly to one of his newly-modified hexplosives.

After a few more minutes, Ziggs finally heard footsteps from the fog he grinned and readied his arsenal of bombs, it was getting closer but to his surprise it wasn't the sound of a slow, mechanised machine, but rather, small, fast footsteps. From the fog emerged Teemo, he had a calm demeanour and waved at Ziggs, Ziggs had no quarrel with Teemo, though hearing he had a fear of explosions somewhat made him lose interest to get to know the yordle. He had already figured out what Rumble was probably planning, using Teemo as a sort of proxy to fight his battle for Tristana, Ziggs sighed with disappointment.

'Sending in Teemo to fight your battles Rumble? I'm disappointed in you.' Ziggs thought as he walked over to the scout.

"Ziggs, I have a question for you, can you please answer honestly?" asked Teemo politely.

Ziggs stopped in his tracks, Teemo sounded weird even though he was so polite, he wondered whether Rumble said anything to him that could be taken as a misunderstanding, he definitely didn't want to fight Teemo, he was a nice enough guy but when in a fight, he becomes an unstoppable killing machine with no regards for the enemies' life. Ziggs shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head to show he was willing to comply with Teemo's request.

"Okay then, is it true that you have a date with Tristana tonight?"

'I knew it!' Ziggs thought. 'Tricking poor Teemo, I'm going to hurt you after this Rumble!"

Teemo glared at Ziggs, awaiting his response, Ziggs continued to think in his head on how to approach the question to avoid an unnecessary conflict with him.

"Well… yes and no…" Ziggs finally answered, though his vague answer left Teemo unsatisfied.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Teemo asked with a slightly menacing tone, Ziggs noticed that his right hand had already gripped on to his blow-pipe; he needed to explain things and fast.

"She said that it was a date but really, I just wanted to throw bombs at some dummies and she insisted on joining me… even when I didn't want her to." Ziggs explained truthfully.

"Is that true?" Teemo's voice had a softer tone than before and Ziggs felt more at ease, feeling as if he had just escaped a damgerous situation.

"Yeah, it's true; she was just upset with… I-I may have said some things about you two," Ziggs confessed with Teemo paying attention to everything he was saying. "L-Like how you two have great chemistry and that it's crazy that you haven't gone out yet and the funny thing is, she said that even if people see it, she will never see you in that way, can you believe her?"

Ziggs chuckled nervously realizing what his anxiety had just revealed to Teemo, he put his hand over his mouth and slowly inched backwards, Teemo's eyes were wide open and his face looked to be in a small state of shock but he regained his composure almost immediately and laughed, shaking his head.

"I see, so that's how it is," Teemo murmured to himself, the sound of small sniffles could be heard. "So even if I ask her, she'll still turn me down… but if she doesn't love me, the next best thing to do is-"

"Keep trying until she falls in love with you?" interrupted Ziggs, putting a hand back over his mouth; he really wished he didn't just say that.

"That's a good suggestion, but no," Teemo looked up, he gritted his teeth and his eyes were red, wiping off the tears fresh tears, he gripped on to his blow-pipe again. "I'm just going to disfigure whoever she's in love with so she doesn't love him anymore…"

Even before Ziggs could say anything back, Teemo had already loaded one of his many poison darts in the pipe and shot at Ziggs, dodging it by just a few inches, the way he continued to reload and fire the darts with such speed was ridiculous but Ziggs knew if he didn't retaliate he'd end up being horribly disfigured, this is exactly what Rumble wanted, though Ziggs did acknowledge that this would've been avoided if he didn't open his big mouth and said some unwanted things.

Ziggs threw his minefield of bombs and it landed in front of where Teemo was walking to, the tiny bombs didn't cause a big blast and it wouldn't hurt much but it did hinder Teemo's movement, he was glad that the information about Teemo being stiff around explosives was true, he continued to chuck different sized bombs at Teemo all magically-lit as he threw each one, some horribly missing due to the scout's speed and others getting a direct-hit, he could see the look in Teemo's eyes, the eyes of a killer. Teemo continued to fire his darts, a few managed to graze Ziggs's arm and he fell to his knees, his head began to spin and he felt like throwing up. The feeling didn't last for too long and he continued to chuck his bombs, this time being more careful with Teemo's movement.

After getting another direct hit, Teemo was knocked back by the explosion and laid limp on the ground, Ziggs panted wondering if it was over, he walked over slowly towards Teemo when suddenly he noticed spores in front of his face, he lifted his foot to see Teemo's infamous poisonous mushroom, wondering when he had the time to even plant one of these suckers. Ziggs got down on one knee, coughing vigorously, the headache got worse and his vision started to get blurry, he looked up to see Teemo, looking down at him, the grin of a predator who had just caught his prey on his face, Ziggs laughed and threw a satchel at the ground, Teemo noticed in time for him to jump back from the explosion as Ziggs pushed the detonator, the blast knocked Ziggs towards his turret but while in mid-air he was struck by another dart, he crashed face first on to the dirt, Teemo walked over to him and held on to one of his darts, he grabbed Ziggs's head to look at his sorry state, the crash had left one side of his goggles broken, revealing an eye that showed he wasn't ready to give up, a bloody nose and a bloody mouth, Ziggs spat at Teemo, hitting the scout in the eye and chuckled. Teemo wiped off the bloody spit and looked at the dart.

"An eye for an eye, as the saying goes."

Teemo stabbed the dart on to Ziggs's exposed eye, the pain was immediate, it spread fast in his body and Ziggs curled into a foetal position and bit hard on his lip, he even desperately broke one of his fingers to stop the pain but to no avail, the pain spread and all he could do was let out agonising screams, slamming his head on the dirt hoping it would stop the pain. Ziggs tried to fight the pain, he opened the injured eye and his heart sank when he realised he couldn't see anything, he felt his eye it was still there and yet he didn't want to believe that he was now blind in one eye. Tears welled up in his eyes as he continued to scream, he had no energy left to stand up, to confront Teemo, who was already walking away. Ziggs, still on the ground, crawled to get to Teemo; he didn't even get more than a few feet when he saw Teemo being kicked back towards him, Teemo laid on the ground, he looked to be in even worse shape, his clothes were all torn up and some his fur had been burnt or ripped off, Ziggs suddenly felt his whole body being crushed by something metallic and jagged.

"So you finally make your appearance, you coward." Ziggs spat, painfully struggling to get out of the metallic foot.

"I'm no coward, you're just a fool for thinking that I would use brawn rather than my superior intellect against you two," gloated Rumble. "But I must thank you Ziggs; because of you I even defeated my greatest rival!"

"So you even resorted into using someone as nice as Teemo just because you're crazy-in-love?" Ziggs remarked. "You're worse than Veigar…"

"Shut up!" Rumble shouted pulling a lever that caused the robot to step on Ziggs even more, Ziggs coughed out blood from the pain.

With his free hand, Ziggs pulled out a bomb as small as a marble, Rumble laughed at the bomb's pathetic size.

"And what exactly are you going to do with that party popper? Is this supposed to shock me with party strings?"

"Ever wondered why I could throw my 'Mega Inferno Bombs' so far? With my physique, it would be quite difficult to throw it at such distances if I was using really big bombs wouldn't you agree?"

"No way, you mean those crazy explosions were caused by that puny thing? No way, nu-uh I'm not believe that crap, you're crazier than I thought if you think I'm gonna fall for that. You wouldn't use that here."

"And whoever said I wasn't as crazy as I look? Suit yourself, bomb incoming…"

Ziggs slammed the bomb on the ground and closed his eyes, his body was consumed in the blast and he fell into a deep unconsciousness, the last thing he could remember was the look of horror on Rumble's face and with that, he was satisfied.

Ziggs gasped for air when he awoke, he immediately recognised where he was when he was, being sent here before due to another bomb incident, he was in the intensive care unit of the infirmary, he saw that almost his entire body was covered with bandages, his left eye was covered with an eye-patch and lamented that everything that happened did happen and there was nothing that could be done about it. Tristana was also there next to him, her head asleep on his lap, quietly sleep talking, he brushed her hair and she jolted upwards and looked at him worryingly, he sighed and stretched out his arms, the pain wasn't as bad now as before, it was slightly made worse when Tristana went to hug him, the hug was just as bad as last time, this girl really needed to get a handle on her crazy strength.

"I'm so sorry," she apologised, not wanting to break out of the hug. "I didn't know that Teemo would do something like this, he's always such a sweet guy! I never thought that-"

"It wasn't his fault, trust me," Ziggs reassured her. "If anything, I'd say he has nothing to be sorry for, but I would like you to tell me exactly what happened with Teemo and Rumble."

Ziggs pulled her back and he saw her depressed look, he lifted up her chin and smiled at her, he didn't want her to make that look, so even if it's fake, even if it hurts him, he would smile for her. Tristana moved the eye-patch away from Ziggs's eye to reveal a now glazed-over eye with no hope of recovery and her face turned serious.

"…Even after he did this to you, you still say it wasn't his fault?! I don't care what you say; I'll never forgive him for doing this to a fellow yordle, a-and Rumble too, what were those two thinking?!"

"I don't blame Teemo for what happened," Ziggs explained. "Now tell me what happened to both of them."

"…Rumble has been suspended for fighting both an ally and an enemy after a decisive winner was named and Teemo has been put under arrest and is being questioned for not only blinding the Dean of Demolitions but also his uncooperative and unusual behaviour by not revealing the antidote in order to help with the recovery of your eye, the result of his action is… well…"

Tristana stopped, it was definitely hard for her to talk about the subject, Ziggs wanted more information and it was as if something was being left out, something obvious but he couldn't quite grasp the answer. Ziggs cleared his throat in order to change the conversation to a lighter subject.

"O-Okay, ummm… how long was I out for?" asked Ziggs.

"Four days."

Ziggs's ears twitched at her answer.

"F-Four days?!" he cried out, immediately regretting it when he was struck with pain again.

"Your injuries were the most severe, you had random spasms due to the combination of blind darts and poison in your body, or so I heard, they only started letting visitors in today, everybody came to visit, you know? Lulu, Poppy, Corki, Heimerdinger even Kennen came all the way from Ionia to see if he could help with the blindness, and several yordles who admire your work showed up."

"Wait, that means…"

"That there are a lot of us that care about you and we'll help you-"

"No, that means… I missed our date." Ziggs realised.

Tristana was shocked, she had not counted on Ziggs to remember something as trivial as that but did find it sweet that it was the first thing he remembered, she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and giggled at him.

"It's okay, stupid. Just make it up to me, next time you feel better."

"O-Okay." answered Ziggs, face flushed.

"The doctors said you aren't supposed to leave for another five days but I'll keep you company, I promise."

Five days seemed like an eternity for Ziggs, he once went almost crazy when he couldn't work on his bombs for more than twelve hours and now he has to spend five days recovering, doing nothing but lying in bed and slowly dying inside, it was his own personal hell. Ziggs noticed his broken goggles on a table next to his bed; he gripped on to them tightly and gritted his teeth.

"In five days I'm going to find you, Rumble… and I'm going to make you wish you didn't pull something as stupid as this." He quietly said to himself. "But for now how am I gonna survive without my bombs?"

Meanwhile, in the outskirts of Bandle City, behind a cover of large trees was Rumble's old shack, it was big enough to house a small yordle like himself, it only had two rooms, a giant lounge, big enough to fit Tristy and any spare parts Rumble needed and a less impressive bedroom. It wasn't much but it was good enough to call home, Rumble was sat down and worked on modifications to Tristy, he was suspended for participating in any fights but he was also glad that he wasn't arrested like Teemo and even if he lost all of his privileges as a champion, he was just thankful that he didn't go to jail.

He liked to work in peace and he didn't mind the quiet since there was hardly anyone who could match his own intellect, he hummed to himself when memories of four days ago flooded his mind, he shook his head trying to forget that it even happened; once again, Ziggs had the final laugh. The tiny bomb that Ziggs carried was indeed just that, a small bomb, though its blast did almost engulf Tristy, it wasn't as superior or as terrifying as his 'Mega Inferno Bombs', Rumble felt disgusted that he was fooled into believing such a pathetic bluff. He put his pen down and slammed his fist on the table, his hate for Ziggs grew even worse, he could still remember that painful memory, when they arrested Teemo and Ziggs was being taken away for treatment, Tristana was there, her eyes filled with tears, Rumble was disgusted with himself the fact that he would cause the person he loved to cry and yet he also felt satisfied with his victory against his two rivals and his conflicted emotions swirled inside him until finally it bubbled on the outside as he let out a loud yell, it caused his shack to shake slightly and even birds evacuated the area.

"Damn him!" he growled. "It's his entire fault, all of it!"

"I agree." commented an unfamiliar voice.

Rumble turned to see Veigar standing in front of his shack's door, he froze in place, if there's one thing he can't stand more than anything, it was magic and he looked to be trouble. Rumble tried to continue working but he could feel the dark yordle stare at him from behind.

"Are you afraid of me, Rumble?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. "Because there's something I think we need to discuss."

"I don't discuss things with the likes of you! Now go away, I'm busy!"

"Oh that's such a shame, especially since I think you're completely in the right…" Veigar commented with an evil smirk.

"I know I'm right, I don't need some fool with crazy voodoo, mumbo-jumbo magic to tell me that!" snapped Rumble.

Veigar raised his staff in the air then a ball of dark matter fell from the sky, it crashed through Rumble's roof and landed on top of Tristy, the machine began to jerk and black smoke was coming from its exhaust. Rumble looked in horror for a second but grabbed his wrench and charged at Veigar, Veigar chuckled and twisted the space around the shack and stopped Rumble in his tracks.

"Now… listen to what I have to say," Veigar chuckled and flicked Rumble's ear. "I have a very good proposition for you."


	3. Blown Out Truth

**Short-fused Yordles Chapter 3**

Rumble couldn't fight back; no matter how much he struggled, his body was in a state of stasis and only the dark yordle in front of him could release him from it. Veigar looked pleased with himself but Rumble had no intention to listen to what he had to say, he hated magic and nothing would convince him otherwise. His angered expression frozen, he could only move his eyes and slightly grind his teeth, the wrench in his hand grew heavy he realised that although frozen in time, his body still felt sensations such as pain and tiredness, his stomach growled and his face turned pink, he hadn't had anything to eat for today. Veigar drew closer and pulled out an already peeled banana, he moved it across Rumble's face knowing that the blue yordle couldn't do anything but gaze at the increasing appetising fruit, Veigar pulled it away from his face and took a bite watching as Rumble gritted his teeth even more.

"So," said Veigar, he threw the rest of the banana on the floor and stepped on it, watching Rumble's eyes shift to the fruit then back to him. "Will you listen to me now or do you still want to make this difficult?"

Veigar clicked his fingers and Rumble could feel that he had regained function of one of his hands, Veigar wouldn't allow him to move anything else or maybe he just wanted him to be quiet, none of that mattered to Rumble, even if he was hungry, even if he wanted to be free, his arrogant nature and his hate for magic didn't allow him to listen to Veigar's request. With his hand, he raised his middle finger and revelled in seeing Veigar's unamused face. Veigar pointed his staff at Rumble and fired at ball of dark matter at his chest, the pain was excruciating and yet he couldn't react to it, the dark matter tore a perfect circle in Rumble's clothing and managed to burn the fur off his chest revealing pink, bare skin. It was too much after all; Rumble had given a thumbs-up signifying that he was willing to listen.

"I'm glad we could talk like civil yordles now." Veigar said in a pleased tone.

Veigar raised his staff once again and unfroze Rumble, the arm holding the wrench finally dropped and he smacked himself on the head, he brushed his Mohawk and felt the small bump and gave Veigar a look of contempt.

"You've got ten minutes so make it quick." Rumble hissed.

"I only need five," Veigar chuckled. "You're going to take a trip with me and when we return, I'll see to it personally that you get what you want. I don't have the time or the patience to explain it to the likes of you and though I assume you already know this but whatever happens… don't die."

"What?" asked the confused yordle, Veigar's explanation was too vague, and Rumble finding out that he may die if he worked with this mad man had stopped him from even agreeing. "I'm not going anywhere with you, you-"

"Goodbye Rumble, I shall see you there."

Veigar stabbed the crystal from his staff into Rumble; Rumble fell to the ground, his body being consumed by some dark, shadow-like entity, it moved as Rumble struggled to break free but none of it helped, he could see Veigar waving goodbye to him, Rumble clutched his chest and allowed it to consume it whole.

* * *

It was the longest five days in Ziggs's life but finally he had been discharged from the infirmary, he walked confidently to the outside world and paused to take in the scenery, though blind in one eye he didn't mind, he had accepted this during his stay, nothing could be done and that was it. The rest of the day was gruelling however; he had to do a physical test and a psychiatric test in order to see if he still had the skills to be named as a champion of the League. He had barely passed the psychiatric test just like he did when he first arrived in the Institute and even with his current disability and lack of depth perception he was still able to accurately throw bombs at his targets, though his accuracy did drop by five per cent, a small loss considering he had ninety seven per cent from his previous physical, building bombs and throwing them was definitely in his DNA and not even something as being blind in one eye was going to stop that.

Afterwards, he met up with other fellow yordles in Bandle City, some congratulated him on his recovery like Tristana, Poppy and Kennen, Poppy even called him a 'soldier' for coming back and still willing to fight as a champion after his ordeal, others wanted to help Ziggs to see if they could help with the recovery of his eye; even the great Heimerdinger and his countless assistants, created a model for a robotic eye, capable of showing different statistics that Ziggs had no knowledge of. In contrast, Lulu wanted to use an ancient magic, something she herself had not even tried to master to see if that would help, needless to say, Ziggs declined both offers.

This took up almost half of his day, it was already two in the afternoon and he was sat on a bench overlooking a park and watched young yordles play, he chuckled silently to himself when he was approached by two guards, both with serious expressions. Ziggs's smile dropped when the two guards asked him to follow them, he had a pretty good guess as to what it was about and followed them with no resistance. After walking for a few minutes in the heart of Bandle City, they had reached their destination; it was as Ziggs predicted the Bandle City precinct complete with a giant statue of the founder of the yordle police force and a giant sign in bright gold letters that read "Bandle City Police Dept.". He sighed and thought if they could be any more tacky, compared to the other buildings, who had a subdued design to them, this one easily stood out, it was embarrassing in a way but then again that was only his opinion, others saw this place as a sign for a better future for the yordles, top prospects in different academies would kill to work here, it was one of the places all yordles wished they could work in, the others were with Heimerdinger in the yordle university in Piltover. Ziggs continued to follow the guards inside the building, the inside was surprisingly much bigger, it had at least three floors, he could see yordles going up and down the flights of stairs, as if they were in a rush, some busily worked on their own desks, stacks of paperwork being passed around constantly, chattering and shouting, Ziggs watched where he stepped as yordles passed by him as if he was invisible, some would glance over in his direction for a moment before going back to what they were previously doing but despite all the hectic activity it felt like the whole place was the inside of the clock with each yordle being a cog, running ever so efficiently, the place had a rhythm that was hard to describe.

He was lead to an elevator and watched as one of the guards pressed the button B-13 behind a secret panel, the elevator shifted then began its descent, he knew about the massive underground prison in Bandle City with each floor housing even more dangerous criminals as they descended, though he admitted he thought it was in a different location than the police department to house that many criminals. The elevator stopped and the doors slowly opened revealing a dimly-lit corridor, at the end of this corridor was a thick, steel door and was the only thing noting in the area, this floor definitely was definitely not in the public's knowledge. One of the guards opened the door inside was a high-ranking yordle, obvious by his badge on the desk, asleep, his legs up on a desk and next to him was cell, containing another yordle in chains. The high-ranking yordle awoke from his slumber and nodded at the two guards, the guards did the same and exited the room, Ziggs, upon closer inspection noticed who the caged-up yordle was and called out to him.

"Teemo?!" Ziggs shouted in a worried tone. "Teemo, are you okay?"

No response came; it was always hard to tell if he was asleep or awake with his eyes, Ziggs looked over at the other yordle hoping he would explain everything.

"Don't look at me boy; he's been locked up for almost… I'd say nine days now. Hasn't spoken a word," explained the yordle. "I doubt you could get 'im to talk but you are the victim here, if you weren't a champion there's no way I would've let you down here but I was told to give you permission so here I am and here you are."

"Look there's been a misunderstanding," Ziggs explained. "I'm fine now. Teemo didn't do anything wrong, he was just tricked, if anything that makes him a victim too!"

"Son, I'd like to believe that," said the yordle, scratching his head. "But it's my duty that he stays chained until we know what to do with him."

"Then why am I here?"

"You tell me, like I said some of the higher-ups told me to let you see him, dunno what good it'll do but I was never one to pry in such matters."

"Well he's not going to talk to me, but I do know someone who he might talk to. Bring her here and he might talk then."

Ziggs wrote down the name of said person and handed it over to the older yordle, he coolly left the room and nodded to Ziggs. Ziggs stayed in the room, nothing but silence between the two and stayed like that for another hour until the steel door opened once again and entered the older yordle and Tristana, her eyes wide when she saw Ziggs as well, he guessed that the older yordle didn't explain anything to her like those guards did with him. Tristana extended her hand past the bars and tried to touch Teemo's cheek but as her hand drew closer Teemo jerked his head away from her.

"Oh Teemo, I just don't understand why you did it."

Teemo was silent, he didn't even want to look at her and the elder yordle shook his head and pulled Tristana away from the bars.

"Well, this was a failure. Thanks for trying though."

The elder yordle lead Ziggs and Tristana to the door then suddenly heard a very weak "Stop" emerging from Teemo's mouth. Teemo looked up, eyes red; he didn't look at Tristana or Ziggs though, only at the elder yordle.

"Could you please leave, I'd like to talk to these two privately."

The elder yordle narrowed his eyes at Teemo and without saying a word, walked off and shut the steel door shut, Teemo then looked at Ziggs and at his blind eye then at Tristana's sad expression.

"I'm not sorry for what I did." He finally said.

"Just tell me Teemo, why did you do it?" pleaded Tristana. "Tell me that much and answer me truthfully."

"I did it because, because I love you." He confessed after taking a deep breath, Tristana's face turned to an embarrassingly red colour.

"Y-You love me?" she asked sounding flustered. "When? How? Why?"

"You're really asking when, how and why? I don't need a reason to love someone, that's just how I felt after always being with you."

"So the reason you blinded Ziggs is, because you were in love with me?"

"I don't understand why you don't feel the same way about me, I tried so hard to be what you want me to be and I still wasn't good enough for you, so when I heard that you had a date with Ziggs I finally snapped, I wouldn't be able to take it, seeing you happy with someone else… so I blinded him, but I guess I must've failed because you two seem to have gotten even more friendly with each other."

Ziggs coughed trying to hide his face and meeting eye-to-eye with Teemo, he was spot-on, while he was incapacitated in bed, Tristana visited him every day. They didn't really do much, just talk about anything and everything until she had to go fight or visiting hours were up, he didn't really ask why she was always there, he just liked the company but now Teemo's saying that she was in love with him, Ziggs still didn't know what to think of Tristana, she had become a support and a great friend over the past few days but Ziggs didn't harbour any romantic feelings for her. He remembered three days ago where she spoon-fed him then afterwards brought one of his bombs secretly in the infirmary, he was grateful for that and promised to repay her but he now wondered whether she did it because she was truly in love. Ziggs shook his head and gazed over at Tristana, their eyes met for a moment before he quickly turned his head away.

"Can you at least tell me why?" Teemo said, now looking down on the ground.

"Why?"

"Why don't you love me?" his voice quivered.

"Teemo… I…" Tristana stopped for a second; she could feel her face going red again, she swallowed the lump in her throat and continued on. "I loved you."

"Loved me?" he asked, surprised to hear her answer.

"Yes, I did love you when we first met, it was kind of stupid if you think about it, then we started hanging out more and I thought that maybe you felt the same way but you never made a move, you just kind of… I dunno, became like a brother to me. So I fell in love with someone else, it's like you said, I didn't need a reason to fall, it just sort of happened."

Teemo looked crushed after hearing the rest, Ziggs felt sorry for him and it felt awkward being in the same room as the two. Teemo nodded his head and smiled at her.

"I hope you'll be happy with him. Please go now."

Ziggs and Tristana left the police department, they didn't know what was still going to happen with Teemo but now they had a motive as to why he blinded Ziggs, a very embarrassing motive. They headed over to a nearby café and both ordered their drinks but not a single one took a sip, they just stared at their drinks, the odd sigh escaped from their mouths.

"Did you have a blast when you were hanging out together?" mumbled Ziggs, breaking the awkwardness between the two, though the question may have increased the level.

"Yeah, I did," She replied. "But now, I'm having a blast with you."

She nonchalantly placed her hand on top of Ziggs, and smiled at him, Ziggs could feel the cold sweats running, he wasn't used to these types of situations and he never wants to be and yet now there is a girl, holding hands with him, it took every ounce of energy he had to stop himself from having a panic attack or blurting out something completely stupid, he wanted to leave, he wanted her to stop holding his hand but he didn't want to make her sad.

'Impossible!' he thought. 'If you tell her you don't love her, she'll be depressed on the other hand, if you continue this charade you won't have time for your bombs and your freedom will be taken away from you. What if it results to marriage or kids, what then? OH GOD NO, PLEASE ANYTHING BUT SNOT-NOSED KIDS!'

Ziggs head was dizzy, full of conflicting thoughts, the voices in his head argued not close to reaching a solution, in a monotonous tone he said,

"I need to go to the toilet."

He pulled his hand away and sped off to the toilet, he splashed water on to his face, though it didn't help, his brain was still in conflicting ideas about what to do, he looked at himself in the mirror and ask himself,

"What do I do?"

"How about you die?"

Ziggs turned his head but was struck with a blunt object before he could see the face of the owner of the other voice; he felt a small amount of blood escaping from his forehead before passing out.

'Why me?'


	4. Snafu in the Plan

**Short-fused Yordles Chapter 4**

Ziggs found himself strapped to a metal chair with thick rope wrapped all over his body, in front of him was a bottle with some blue liquid on a small wooden table and a note next to it, the rest of the room was black, the only light was the one that shone down on the table and him, Ziggs didn't care about the bottle though whoever locked him up in this room probably wanted him to drink it, he wanted to get out and find out exactly what happened to him, the voice he heard before he was knocked out was unfamiliar to him and yet it sounded angry for some reason. He tried to move his body hoping he could tip the chair and maybe loosen the rope but it was no use when he found out that the chair had also been screwed in place, he even checked the inside of his shirt and found out that any lighters or matches he owned has been confiscated from him, whoever had kidnapped him was thorough with what Ziggs may do next, every precaution was taken so that he wouldn't be able to leave. Ziggs leaned in closer to look at the note hoping that it may give some kind of clue but just groaned when he saw the contents of the note.

"Drink me, of course." He said in an unamused tone.

He removed the bottle's lid with his mouth then carefully proceeded to drink the blue liquid, a surprisingly sweet taste came from the liquid, he spat out the bottle and it made a small cracking sound on the ground, with this, whoever had captured him was most likely pleased with his action. There was nothing else to do in the room after all but even when he waited for the slow claps or some kind of sarcastic voice congratulating him but nothing came, Ziggs was completely left with his thoughts. It's what he wanted though he wished he was in better circumstances like not being strapped on a chair would definitely improve his mood, he could imagine her waiting there for him patiently and him not coming back, getting more and more restless until finally she realises that he was gone, that scenario didn't help with his train of thought, he shook his head hoping that that scenario didn't happen and that someone was already looking for him. Here it was perfect, an eerie silence but suitable for one who wished to be left alone to think, his mind was still too cluttered however for it all to make sense, he had no understanding on why he was targeted, who was the perpetrator or where he was, he pushed the problems with Tristana farther into the back of his mind, he would deal with that problem when he gets there but for now this was for more important. He didn't even know what the blue liquid was supposed to be as he had not felt any effects from it so far, none of his sensations and senses were sharpened or weakened and he felt completely normal.

'Why am I here? How do I get out? …Why does the voice in my head sound different?'

He realised that everything that he was thinking had been repeated by a voice inside his head, strangely the voice was not his but it had a very irritating squeak to it, a squeak he knew all too well.

"Veigar," Ziggs called out. "What does the 'great' Veigar want with me?"

The voice didn't answer but Ziggs could hear it laughing silently as if it was anticipating something amazing that's about to unfold. He felt uneasy all of a sudden and then he felt a twitch, it began from one of his ears then it spread fast around his body, he felt pain but it wasn't the normal pain, it was hard to describe. He could feel his body changing, his whole structure was changing, the change in his skull, jaw, his arms slightly shrinking, even his clothes changed and eventually even his fur turned into a pale blue colour. Ziggs gasped understanding what transition had just taken place, his once blind eye was now fully recovered, he could see perfectly again but it wasn't right, nothing about this was right, this body wasn't his own.

"Veigar come out right now!" demanded Ziggs; even his own voice was different.

"Yes Ziggs?" asked Veigar in a sarcastic tone. "Or should I call you Rumble now?"

"So what was in the bottle?" he asked, ignoring Veigar's snide remark.

* * *

**A few days ago…**

Rumble groaned, his head was aching as it felt like his whole body had just been crushed by some powerful pressure, he slowly got up clutching his head, wherever Veigar was Rumble would make sure that he'd give him a proper pounding. He scanned the area that Veigar had transported him to, the place was covered in a thick fog but it's clear to see that the trees or any supposed living thing in this place was dead, Rumble slammed his fists to a nearby husk of a tree, he knew where he was; he was somewhere deep inside the forests of the Shadow Isles. Rumble cursed Veigar, why that yordle would send him to somewhere as dangerous as this place was beyond him but to not even bring along Tristy even when he specifically asked for Rumble's help, he gritted his teeth and wondered if he had been fooled by the evil yordle and he was just sent here to die, to be feasted upon by some creature that lurked in the forests of these islands, that's the sort of thing that Veigar would do. Rumble kept a calm composure and started his trek forward, he didn't know if there was anything worth finding in here but staying in one spot was never a good idea, especially if in a place like this. He walked for what seemed like an hour, the fog was bothersome but Rumble forged on, he wished there was something more interesting to see than dead trees and dead plants, even the odd dead animal which had been cruelly gutted or torn apart by some predator didn't pique Rumble's interest.

He made it to a clearing in the forest and the first thing he noticed was that there was grass around the area, alive which was even more surprising, a small clear pond and a solitary oak tree, in contrast to the rest of the island this place was beautiful as if nothing had disturbed this place for some reason. Rumble knelt down next to the pond, cupped some water and took a sip, it was refreshingly cold, he decided to relax and laid down on the grass, he didn't care anymore about Veigar's intentions. His eyes grew heavy and Rumble yawned, his body wanted to rest, the trek to this spot had been both physically and mentally exhausting and he let himself fall asleep in a place like this.

"Wake up fool!" someone commanded him, though the voice sounded distant. "It's a trap; you'll get killed if you don't wake up!"

Rumble opened his eyes and his eyes wide in terror, he was face to face with a giant spider, as big as three humans with a strange, black flower on its large behind, it drew closer, its eyes only focused on his prey. Rumble tried to retreat though his legs were paralysed, his used his hands and tried to inch away, Rumble could feel his body was shaking like a small child, he didn't want to die, not here of all places, not when he still had so many things left to accomplish. The spider drew closer, now its fangs touching Rumble's goggles when it let out an agonizing scream, it struggled to move its body, Rumble noticed that dark matter had crushed the spider's back end, crushing the flower and its behind, it continued to struggle only instinctively waving its legs, trying to grab hold of Rumble, a final snack before its death but it was no use and it laid limp, finally dead. Rumble tried to stand but lost balance; he felt the firm grip of someone's hand on his shoulder to keep him steady.

"…Thanks." He said reluctantly.

"It seems that you _were _useful after all," Veigar replied in a rude tone. "This adventure ended sooner than I had expected and we only had to stay three days in these islands."

Rumble's eyes were wide in disbelief, he looked straight in to Veigar's eyes, and his eyes didn't seem to lie but the idea of already being in these islands for three days was scary; Rumble brushed his mohawk back, wiped off the venom from the spider's fangs and readjusted his goggles.

"Don't be fooled, I don't have the magic that can instantly transport us anywhere at any given time, it took me a day to get here but you with your struggling made it unstable so you ended up here three days later, I was getting rather bored really."

"So why didn't you just go back? Why did you bother staying here, waiting for me? Did you just use me as bait for that- that thing?!"

Veigar shrugged at Rumble's questions, he ignored to answer the blue yordles questions and pulled out several small bottles, he collected the venom that dripped off the spider's fangs, a sickly, fluorescent purple colour filled the bottles and pulled off several petals from the black flower, Veigar smiled with a sense of accomplishment. Rumble also noticed that the clearing was no more, the area was exactly the same as the rest of the isles, no grass or pond and only the remnants of a dead oak tree remained a solitary stump. Rumble clutched his head, not understanding what just transpired, he just wanted what Veigar promised him but he wondered whether it was worth all this.

"I know what you're going to ask," said Veigar as he packed away the bottles containing the venom. "It was the spider, the flower on its back releases a hallucinogen, toxic to humans, it could kill then in twenty minutes but yordles are built differently so we only hallucinate."

"How did you know I was hallucinating?" Rumble asked warily.

"You were passed out on the floor with a stupid smile on your face like an idiot," insulted Veigar. "One would assume either that you were affected by the hallucinogen or you truly are an idiot who falls asleep in random places."

Rumble tried to take a punch at Veigar but Veigar used his staff to freeze Rumble in place once again, Veigar shook his head at the feeble attack and snickered. He pulled out a syringe and injected it into Rumble's arm, taking an exceedingly large amount of blood, Rumble wanted to rip Veigar apart, for leaving him, almost getting him killed and now taking blood from him without an explanation but like last time, he was unable to voice out a protest against Veigar's unexplained actions.

"I promised you that if you helped me, I will see to it personally that you get what you want but you must also comply, your blood is what will make all of your perverse fantasies come true."

After taking what looked to be seven syringes of blood, Veigar release him from stasis. Rumble didn't agree to have blood taken from him but he was glad that Veigar is keeping his side of the bargain, though he would never admit that to his face and still acted pissed off at the dark yordle.

"And why exactly did you need my blood?" Rumble asked, pretending not to care.

"Oh don't worry, all will be revealed in due time."

* * *

**Present Day…**

"So is it safe to assume, since you turned me into Rumble, did you turn Rumble into me?" asked Ziggs, still unsure of Veigar's motives.

Veigar laughed; finally emerging from the shadows he placed one more bottle in front of Ziggs then tapped his staff on the ground, the room instantly got brighter and Ziggs now saw that he was inside a padded cell but it didn't look to have anything resembling a door, Ziggs assumed Veigar had created this room with his magic as some sort of sick joke. He glared at Veigar his eyes showed that he wanted an explanation for what was happening but Veigar tapped his fingers on the table and smirked at him.

"Isn't it fun?" Veigar asked suddenly it startled Ziggs slightly.

"What is?" he asked warily.

"Blowing up buildings of course! More specifically sending a giant mechanical death-trap to blow up a certain prison housing over two hundred different criminals!" exclaimed Veigar. "That _is_ what you like to do isn't it,_ Rumble_?"

"What. Did. You. Do?!" Ziggs demanded to know, he stressed out every word and he was visibly angry at Veigar, who feigned ignorance and looked hurt at Ziggs's response.

"It's not what _I _did. It's what _you_ did or more specifically… what _he_ did and why you'll be locked up for good."

"What are you and him planning? Do you realise how many people you might've killed?!"

"And do you realise that I am evil?" Veigar wittily replied. "Innocent, guilty in the end they'll all end up dead. I'm not to blame for this one, _you_ are."

"Me? Wha-"

"_You_ were the one who blew up the prison, _you_ were the one who threatened to destroy the yordle academy and _you_ were the one who almost killed your beautiful girlfriend, which by the way is now most likely being comforted by that idiot. So to answer your first question Ziggs, yes, Rumble has turned himself into you and he will stay in that form forever while poor _Rumble_ will be blamed andwill serve his time for causing the biggest jail break in the history of Bandle City."

Ziggs understood what Veigar meant but he couldn't respond, he had no response, he was being accused of doing all of these evil actions, actions that had happened while he was passed out but being in the body of the one who committed these crimes, it was going to be hard to explain anything to anybody. Veigar was planning something and this plan was something far greater than helping Rumble, the jail-break was just the beginning, he knew that but it was all too confusing to understand. Ziggs shook his head disgusted that Rumble fell for Veigar's false promise of grandeur; he thought Rumble was much smarter than that but now he has been proven wrong. Even the idea of being turned into him must have put Rumble in a foul mood and yet here they were, in different bodies. What kind of 'friendship' do these two have? Then a thought popped into his head, he didn't understand why but it was worth asking.

"So tell me, if everything you told me is true then what's with the bottle?" Ziggs inquired.

"Oh, so you noticed," Said Veigar impressed with Ziggs's question. "You truly are intellectually superior to him."

"Answer the question goddammit!" snapped Ziggs.

"Very well but I can't reveal the contents of the bottle unless you want to be 'disposed' of."

"Fine, don't tell me the contents but why is it important? Why bother pulling it out and showing it to me? Stop beating around the bush and tell me what do you want me to do with it?" asked Ziggs who grew increasingly more impatient with Veigar.

"…A slight miscalculation in my plan. That little rat has stolen one of my vials and has holed up inside the Institute using it as a sanctuary, you know that champions are not allowed to attack one another inside unless summoned or ordered to do so by the summoners and that's where the problem lie. I _could_ go and erase his existence but so long as he is you it is impossible, the high summoners have been keeping an eye on _Ziggs_ since that incident and if I appeared in the Institute to have business with him it would only lead to me being the obvious suspect if he was harmed in any way."

"Ok…"

"Let's just say I have a proposition for you: I shall hand this to you and you get me back the vial that Rumble stole and bring him to me and in return, I shall return you back to your pathetic, normal self."

"And you want me in Rumble's body, to just walk in there after he caused a city-wide panic, avoid all the summoners and champions, find Rumble who is in my body and bring him back here along with this 'vial' without anybody finding out that he has disappeared." Ziggs explained Veigar's very vague plan, the more he repeated it in his head the stupider and harder the mission seemed to get.

"Exactly." Veigar answered curtly. "Now get to it!"

"Can you at least tell me one more thing?" he asked abruptly.

"Hmm?"

"Why did you bother to kidnap me when you told me to die before knocking me out?"

"I did no such thing; I found you unconscious in the forests just outside of Bandle City, I thought it was strange at first but I decided to let you live and use you, as you can see, it has worked out well for moi." Veigar sounded pleased with himself.

Ziggs was now even more confused, he wonder if there was there someone else targeting him, other than Rumble, he shook his head and decided to deal with the immediate problem first before worrying about that. Veigar tapped his staff on the ground once again, the room dissipated and the chair and rope that once held Ziggs in place disappeared, he saw that they were stood on top of one of the largest skyscrapers in Piltover, obvious when he saw the yordle academy's golden spire off in the distance. Two zeppelins passed by the skyscraper, both showed a large wanted poster of Rumble's face, a bounty of five-hundred thousand gold coins to anyone who could catch the 'terrorist'. Ziggs felt sick, he knew it was going to be difficult but to start off in a place where Rumble's face was plastered on every available surface made everything worse and escape from Piltover would be difficult.

"Oh final notes, whatever happens, don't drink the contents of this vial." Veigar warned Ziggs.

Veigar tossed him the vial; he waved his staff in the air and was enveloped in a dark shroud that disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Ziggs covered his eyes with the goggles and grinned, he wasn't going to get caught without a fight first and he set his eyes on his first destination: the Yordle University.


	5. A Beauty and the Blasted Beast

**Short-fused Yordles Chapter 5**

It was night inside the Institute, the news of Rumble's actions had spread fast as it was the talk of the day; champions that didn't know Rumble talked amongst themselves about how they thought that he was always awkward and stayed away from normal interactions with others, rumors circulated about him having planned the whole thing, those that did know him slightly wondered whether he was even capable of doing these acts of terrorism, they knew Rumble's personality but was still skeptical about the news. The high summoners had sent a global warning to all champions that any information that lead to Rumble's arrest would be greatly appreciated and will be rewarded justly, this had peaked the interests of money-hungry champions like Twisted Fate who coolly left the Institute and Draven who bragged about how the reward was his and ran out laughing like some kind of madman. Rumble who had taken the form of Ziggs, held on to Tristana's shaken hand as they made their way to the lobby, he ignored all the talk regarding him, he had to act like Ziggs now. Tristana had been in a state of depression since her ordeal, it was hard to see her in this state the normal cheerful glow that she emitted was gone, Rumble knew what he did to her was wrong, almost crushing her with Tristy was painful for him to do but he knew it was necessary, he was no longer Rumble, he was now Ziggs, the person that Tristana loved. It hurt his pride when he heard it from Veigar's mouth, the fact that Tristana could never love him and that this was the only solution though the idea of being turned into the bomb-freak didn't sit well with Rumble, he knew he had no other choice, all his sins that he had caused, now Ziggs would have to bear them.

Rumble secretly pulled out a vial from inside his shirt and looked at the contents, a dark navy blue colour, he could remember when Veigar made him drink the one that lead to his transformation though the colour of the liquid was an orangey-brown colour, he was thankful for Veigar but his body couldn't accept the fact that magic had helped him achieve his goal and he secretly resented himself for that. Rumble gulped, he had made a dangerous enemy by stealing from Veigar but it couldn't be helped and what's done is done, he closed his eyes and a small memory emerged from the clutter, it was during when Veigar was still concocting the liquid inside the vials, constantly and quietly murmuring to himself, using the venom, petals and of course, his blood. Veigar explained to him that love potions didn't exist but he could make something equally as amazing and just as potent, Rumble raised an eyebrow not bothering to ask anything else. Another memory raised its ugly head from the flood of memories, this time it was Veigar explaining what Rumble had to do: the destruction of the prison, threatening Heimerdinger and the Yordle University and harming Ziggs's "girlfriend". Rumble snapped at Veigar about having to harm Tristana but Veigar explained that if there was one person that would believe a story as ridiculous as swapping bodies, it would be her and so he needed her to hate _Rumble, _hate him so much that even the sight of him would cause her to either attack him viciously or ignore anything he would say to her, Rumble felt like a puppet but followed with Veigar's plans nonetheless. A final memory resurfaced, the sight of Veigar's pleased face as they were stood atop one of the buildings in Bandle City, he slowly nodded his head at the sight of criminals pouring out, causing havoc, the police of Bandle City tried their best to fight back the criminals but they were quickly outnumbered, and the criminals ran rampant. Rumble hated the sight, this wasn't what he wanted, not this, but it was too late and then… his own transmogrification into Ziggs.

"Thank you for all your help Rumble, oh sorry, I meant Ziggs." Veigar thanked with a bow.

Rumble noticed that as Veigar bowed one of the vials fell from Veigar's coat, it made a small clink on the ground but the dark yordle didn't notice it and as he disappeared in the shadows Rumble picked it up, he instinctively stole this small vial for insurance in the case that Veigar may plan something against him. He laughed at how stupid Veigar was that he would drop something that he worked hard on and not even notice it missing.

Rumble opened his eyes again; it was still hard to walk properly while blind in one eye, occasionally tripping on his own foot though that didn't stop him from enjoying the moment of holding hands with Tristana even if she was in a depressed state. He guided her to a nearby sofa and comforted her, putting his arm around her, it felt surreal, in his own body he would have never had the courage to talk to her much less comfort her and yet while in _his _body,it was different, he had confidence in his words and actions, maybe because only he knew the truth and he didn't feel the least bit guilty.

"Thanks Ziggs." said Tristana, planting a kiss on his cheek.

Rumble blushed, he could die happy right now if that was the last thing to happen but his subconscious was slightly annoyed that she would use Ziggs's name, it didn't feel right but Rumble had to accept that she would never love him especially if the truth was revealed now. Other champions went up to them and asked about Tristana's condition, some even shamelessly asked whether she knew anything about _Rumble's _whereabouts but Tristana simply shook her head, leaving those champions disappointed. A beautiful woman with tangled, crimson-red hair, holding a bottle of rum walked towards them and sat on the other side of Tristana, the smell of rum in her breath but she didn't seem to be drunk, the woman offered her drink to both yordles, Rumble declined the drink but Tristana gladly accepted it and took three big gulps before passing it back to the woman.

"Feeling better?" she asked, her voice had a tone of genuine concern.

"Yes, thanks Sarah, I needed that."

"Still I can't believe that guy, attacking another yordle that's despicable! Especially someone who he-"

The woman stopped her speech when she noticed Tristana's confused look, she had guessed that the dazed yordle didn't know about Rumble's unrequited love and decided to drop the subject and shifted the conversation over to Rumble_._

"Anyway Ziggs, you must be pretty pissed off with that guy hurting your girlfriend, are you gonna hunt him down too?"

"I-It's none of my concern what happens to him," Rumble answered. "I'm just here to take care of Tristana, but if you do want the bounty on his head, you should check the forests near Bandle City, I saw a little shack there quite a while ago, loads of scrap metal, it may be a good lead."

Rumble answered nonchalantly, this was information that Ziggs wouldn't even know but he knew that he had to sound angry or at least have no interest about _Rumble's _situation and if it meant that he was to sacrifice his little shack, so be it, it gave him relief that this magic was strong enough to fool other champions into believing that he was Ziggs even if his mannerisms were off. The woman raised her eyebrow and patted Rumble on the back; she then stood up and walked over to the exit of the Institute.

"Thanks for the info Ziggy, but I gotta tell you, if I find him 'fore anybody else, I ain't sharing the bounty!" proclaimed the woman.

Both yordles watched as the woman disappeared from their sight, Rumble swore he saw her eyes in the shape of gold coins just as she left and Tristana giggled silently, she buried her face on to Rumble's chest and hid her smiling face, he could see that her face had gotten considerably red from the rum. Rumble was comforted with the fact that she was now somewhat happy considering her previous state even if she _was_ under the influence of alcohol, being able to hear her laugh made him feel at ease, he was shocked when she pulled her head closer, her breath tickled his ear.

"Ziggs," she whispered. "Can you take me outside? I have something important to say."

Tristana giggled again and buried her face again on to Rumble's chest but Rumble complied to her wish and guided her awkwardly to the outside steps of the Institute, moving while having the girl of her dreams press her face against his chest made his heart beat faster than normal he hoped that she wouldn't notice it or the very least, ignore it. His heart raced wondering what Tristana wants to say, was she ready to admit her love for Ziggs? That would crush Rumble if it weren't for the fact that _he _was Ziggs now and it would stay that way forever.

Once outside, Tristana sat down on the top of the steps that lead up to the Institute, the dim-glow from magical orbs positioned on every pillar illuminated the area as well as the large full moon and the billions of stars, not a single cloud in the night sky, the perfect romantic setting. She didn't let go of his hand and kept a firm grip on to it, she stared up at the night sky, the cold wind breezed past her, it blew her hair back yet she didn't mind, she was just quiet accompanied with a small smile on her face.

"Hey," she finally said after being quiet for so long. "Do you remember when you asked me out on a date?"

"U-Uh, well," Rumble replied, he remembered that he was shamelessly eavesdropping into their conversation that day but couldn't make out what the two was talking about, he took a deep breath and decided to guess the answer. "I asked you to come throw bombs with me?"

"Why do you sound so unsure, silly? That's right. It may have been insignificant to you, you looked so annoyed after asking me but to me... when you asked me, I-"

"It wasn't insignificant to me at all!" interrupted Rumble he wondered where he suddenly got this new found courage but he was willing to use it now, the perfect opportunity. "I-I wanted to do it, to do it with you. Go on dates with you, be there for you when you're sad anything to make you happy I would've done, you know that right?"

"Yes," she answered with a smile. "I know that now."

She turned Rumble's head to her own and kissed him, their lips locked tight, nothing could break them during this moment. Rumble felt like he was about to die soon from happiness, he had been caught completely off-guard and wondered if he was even doing it right, Rumble confessed to himself that he had never actually kissed a girl before and the fear of getting laughed at grew inside, at least he didn't pass out like all those 'practice sessions' with the doll. They pulled away from each other gasping for breath, Rumble needed to ask or his insecurities would get the better of him.

"How'd I do?" he asked, he almost regretted asking the question.

"Hmmm… I've had better." She said, sticking her tongue out.

"R-Really?"

Tristana bursted out laughing, he was left there dumbstruck, was his insecurities right? Was he that bad? Rumble started to stand up but Tristana tugged on his arm and forced him to sit back down, Rumble never noticed that she was incredibly strong for someone with her physique.

"Stupid, I've never kissed anybody before okay?" confessed the blushing Tristana. "So I was going to ask you how I did… guess I never thought that it was your first time too."

Rumble felt relieved and stupid at the same time, he hugged her tightly despite her protests for him to let go, she was actually enjoyed being hugged by him, she leaned in even closer and placed her head under his chin. Rumble held on to her even tighter, she didn't seem to mind. They stayed in silence once again and Rumble thought he would take the initiative and talk about something.

"You know, Tristana I've been thinking about Rumble and- Oww!"

Tristana frowned at him and flicked his ear, obvious that she didn't appreciate that he would talk about him in front of her. Rumble knew that he messed up, why did he think that talking about him would make the mood even better? Was he really that much of an idiot when it came to romance?

"Geez at least read the atmosphere better, you ruined the mood Ziggs," She complained. "If you had to think about one person why not the one you've been cuddling with this whole time? Instead, you bring him up and now I'm annoyed."

"I-I'm sorry, you're right, I shouldn't have-" Rumble tried to apologise, calling himself an idiot in his head over and over again.

"Oh no, don't mind me, go find Rumble and get the bounty, it's far more important than me after all, that's what you've been thinking about so you can go and-"

Rumble pressed his lips against hers, this time she was the one caught off-guard; he just wanted her to listen, kissing her to be quiet wasn't what he had in mind but it was all he could do in the spur of the moment, he saw her eyes glistening, a small tear dropped from her cheek as she closed her eyes. He really was an idiot.

"Nothing's more important than you," he said and hugged her. "I care about you more than anything else in the world Tristana, believe me."

"Okay, I'll believe you if you do one thing for me."

"Anything you want."

"…Sleep in my room tonight."

Her face grew even redder, she said something outrageous and Rumble was taken aback with her condition, he knew she was serious; she looked down and avoided any eye-contact with him. He slowly nodded his head and her face brightened with his response, she lead him back inside and avoided any contact with other champions, holding his hand before stopping just in front of her room. She took a deep breath, not bothering to turn around to face him.

"I… I love you, Ziggs," She announced meekly, before opening her door. "Before you can come in, I want you to say it too; I want to know if you genuinely love me so please…"

"I love you too Tristana," Replied Rumble he wasn't afraid of admitting the obvious truth. "I always have."

With that answer she lead him inside and locked the door shut, all throughout that night they didn't separate.

* * *

Meanwhile in Piltover, Ziggs who was had taken Rumble's form, sneakily maneuvered around Piltover, he had visited this place enough times and had even been given a tour by Heimerdinger of the city so he vaguely knew his way around, avoiding any large, crowded areas, he also had to avoid Piltover's infamous police-duo, once he's caught by Vi's vice-like grip then it's over. He didn't bother disguising himself; Rumble's face was all over this city, he tried his best by removing the wanted posters whenever he came across one but it was often difficult or scarce that people wouldn't pass by and ask what he was up to. He had saw a shabby-looking coat on a bench but decided against taking it; a simple change of clothes wouldn't be of much use when people start to recognize him and he didn't want stealing a coat to end up on Rumble's already long rap sheet, he used the cover of night to shroud himself and kept his head low, though the idea of someone not spotting the pale-blue yordle was almost impossible, and traveled past areas that scarcely had any people, he wandered and found himself in the city's central park. This place would be booming with life in the morning, geniuses often showcasing their own technological advances to help Piltover, it would shock and awe the bystanders who would come and watch, it had become a daily event in Piltover, Ziggs cold remember it well during his tour with Heimerdinger but at night, this place was dead silent, several paths lead to different parts of the park but Ziggs knew the way to the Yordle University. He wasn't going to survive on his own, he needed somebody, anybody to believe his story, both sheriff Caitlyn and Vi where out of the question, they wouldn't listen to a tale so ridiculous and so Ziggs could only turn to the only prominent yordle in Piltover for help, though getting a man of science such as Heimerdinger to believe his story would be a challenge. Ziggs was still deep in thought when he bumped on to someone, the person fell to one side but Ziggs continued his walk, almost in a dazed state.

"HEY!" shouted the person. "At least apologise, you jerk!"

Ziggs turned to see a yordle who dusted herself off from where Ziggs had apparently bumped into her, her long purple hair was longer than her entire body length and from her hair protruded two furry ears, her outlandishly large curled hat floated in mid-air while her staff was being held in place by some small, winged creature whose wings flourished beautiful purple and red patterns. Ziggs lent his hand and she accepted it then almost without warning she kicked Ziggs in the shin, he bent down and applied pressure on the bruised leg, he had not expected to meet Lulu to be in Piltover, she always avoided the bustling cities and was often sighted in the forests near the Institute. The female yordle put her hat back on and looked at Ziggs, her eyes grew wide with surprise and looked over at her winged companion and then back to Ziggs.

"Rumble?" she asked, Veigar's magic has even affected her it seems. "No wait, your Rumble but not _Rumble_."

…Or not. Ziggs grabbed the girl, she froze in place and the winged creature retaliated by hitting Ziggs over and over on the head.

"Lulu what did you just say?" asked Ziggs his voice sounded frantic.

"I said how you're Rumble but also not Rumble, just whoooo are you?"

Lulu pushed Ziggs's hand off of her arm and softly touched his face her eyes narrowed down, inspecting the blue yordle. She looked over to her winged companion, Pix and whispered something, the fairy flew up and down and shrugged its shoulders, Ziggs shook his head not understanding the interactions between the two, Pix seemed to tell Lulu something, apparent when she looked to pay great attention to everything her friend was saying, if it was indeed, saying anything at all.

"Good idea Pix!"

Lulu waved her staff in the air and pointed it at Ziggs,

"Normas!" she chanted, a bright light engulfed Ziggs, it was too bright and he had to close his eyes.

Ziggs opened his eyes and saw his fur return to normal and even his clothes had returned, he felt his face and everything was where it should be, even his blind eye. A smile was etched across his face and Lulu gasped at what her magic had just revealed.

"Ziggs?" she asked confused about the situation. "Why were you Rumble? Don't you know that he's being wante-"

Lulu gasped again and covered her mouth, Ziggs body changed and returned to that of Rumble's, not even Lulu's magic was strong enough to return him to his original state and whatever was in these vials that Veigar concocted was some potent black magic. Ziggs shook his head, the smile disappeared, he took a deep breath and cursed at the sky, he let off steam ranting about why this had to happen to him, to any bystander who might pass, he just looked like one of those crazy people wandering the park late at night. Lulu patted Ziggs on the back after his tirade and looked at Pix worryingly.

"Rum- No, Ziggs can you tell me exactly what happened?" she asked.

Ziggs looked at her and sighed offering her a seat at the bench next to them. For what felt like twenty minutes, Ziggs explained his story, Lulu already knew about the incident with Teemo but she didn't know anything of what happened after, nobody did except for Veigar, Rumble and him and now her. Lulu smiled at Ziggs, her eyes full of pity, she seemed to believe his story and he felt a little relieved that it didn't sound as ridiculous as he thought and then he remembered that he was talking to 'Lulu', this girl was strange to say the least and often talked about her fantastical adventures with Pix in 'The Glade', if she believed a story like Ziggs's then it must register in her mind that it so much more fantastical than her adventures, she hung on every word like a small child listening to a bedtime story, no normal person would believe it, Ziggs knew that now.

"Whooooaaaa," awed Lulu, her eyes glistening. "But if Veigar wanted you to help him, why not just change you back to make it easier?"

"Incentive," Ziggs answered flatly. "Veigar knew that if he turned me back to my normal self, he wouldn't have a guarantee that I would carry out his request, with this, he has the power to get me to do anything he needs."

"I see," said Lulu, now twiddling her fingers. "And you're off to see Heimy, right?"

"That's the plan."

"Well you'll need my amazing skills to get in the university then," She boasted.

"Why?" asked Ziggs, though he had a guess as to the reason why.

"Guards. Lots of 'em, all posted outside the campus. Even saw officer Caitlyn on my way out, gave me a cupcake and everything but I had a walk around the place, I know where all the guards are and where they patrol, if you want I could tell you but only if I can come."

'_I knew it. Why is it never easy?'_

"Fine, let's go." Said Ziggs with a sigh, he didn't have the energy to argue and having Lulu as an ally was better than going at it alone. "Lead the way."

* * *

They had arrived at the back of the university's science department, it was easy enough to spot with its golden spire but how both he and Lulu managed to get here without being seen was more or less a miracle, both were hidden behind tall hedges, it took another hour to get here from the park, it would have been faster but to avoid being seen by a large majority of Piltover's public, they constantly had to run through different alleys and shady passageways to get to their destination. The police had set up roadblocks just a few blocks away from where they are now, Ziggs was thankful that even though the police were here they had less of their normal numbers as some had to go help with the emergency in Bandle City, unfortunate, yes, but there was nothing he could do about that. Lulu sent Pix to scout out the area for any more police, and the two waited behind the cold, dark hedge, Lulu hummed a tune to preoccupy herself but Ziggs was too distracted about how he was going to explain everything to Heimerdinger when he meets him, he didn't even contemplate about what would happen if Heimerdinger wasn't here, he had to be here, if he wasn't then he had put himself in more unnecessary danger.

'_You could always get Lulu to cast that spell on you again; it would be much faster than explaining it when you're in Rumble's body.'_ Ziggs's inner voice said.

Ziggs nodded, there was no simpler solution, he was about to ask Lulu when Pix shot out of nowhere and communicated with Lulu, Ziggs noticed that the fairy used hand signals but it also opened its mouth to talk, he thought whether it was only Lulu who could actually hear what Pix has to say. She nodded her head and pointed at the back entrance of the science department, Ziggs and her crept low, she waved her staff and purple energy shot out and blasted the doorknob to nothingness. Lulu giggled but Ziggs just shook his head, were all the yordle girls this so strong? Ziggs ran up the stairwell, the top floor was his destination, Lulu and Pix both looked at each other and shrugged, she waved her staff and chanted, _"Glideomify!"_

Her body began to levitate, she was used to it, being able to fully control her body's movement with her mind and swiftly glided up the steps, on her way up she saw the increasingly tired Ziggs, she got up behind him and grabbed him from behind, Ziggs was shocked that he was now flying up the stairs, he could hear Lulu's laugh from behind him, Ziggs laughed quietly also, it was his first genuine laugh in a long time and it felt great. They reached the top floor in a matter of seconds and Lulu let go of Ziggs as she landed gracefully on the ground and took a small bow. Ziggs scanned the corridor, empty, he headed for Heimerdinger's office but as he opened the door he was greeted with Heimerdinger's armed turrets that fired obediently at the door, Ziggs dodged to one side, he caught a glimpse of the inventor's unmistakably large, curly Afro. He was going to talk to Ziggs, even if Ziggs had to drag him out.

"Heimer, stop firing!" commanded Ziggs. "I just want to talk!"

"How dare you! Rumble I know that we've had differing opinions but to come here and you dare threaten me and this prestigious academy, I will not tolerate such behavior!" the elder yordle shouted back.

"Heimy please just listen to him, it's important!" Lulu called out.

Ziggs peered inside the room, the turrets still look ready to shoot but Heimerdinger was fixing up his tie and dusting off his coat, he walked to the doorway and frowned at Ziggs but smiled when he saw Lulu.

"Anything for you, Ms. Fae Sorceress." Ziggs was surprised with Heimerdinger's sudden switch when it came to Lulu.

Once inside, they stared in awe at how big the office really was, it took up an entire floor but it was still an impressive sight, two large king-sized beds, leather sofas, tables and desks made from mahogany and polished to near perfection, stacks of paperwork that touched the ceiling, in the corner was a complicating looking contraption, full of wires attached on to it and one of the largest fireplaces the two yordle had ever seen, providing heat for the whole room. Ziggs sat down across from Heimerdinger who was now drinking tea, he explained everything to Heimerdinger, the old yordle took all the information in, though he wasn't entirely convinced with the ridiculous story and used his powerful processor of a brain to ask Ziggs detailed questions that only the real Ziggs would now, needless to say, Ziggs passed with flying colours but Heimerdinger still wasn't convinced. That's when Ziggs used his trump card; he asked for Lulu's help, Lulu casted the same spell on to Ziggs revealing that everything he said was indeed true, Heimerdinger's mood lightened up even when he saw the strange phenomenon of Ziggs's body turning back into Rumble's.

"I see I'm truly sorry for doubting you Ziggs." Heimerdinger apologised.

"It's okay professor, anybody would have done the same."

"So what do you plan on doing with Rumble? If you believe Veigar's words then he would not risk stepping a foot outside of the Institute, I have also received the global warning for your, I mean, Rumble's arrest."

"I don't know yet, my plan was to meet you and hoping you may have a plan." Confessed Ziggs.

"I'm afraid I have no suggestions for you my boy. Well I must inform officer Caitlyn and lady Vi about this misunderstanding."

Ziggs stopped Heimerdinger and shook his head.

"I think it would be hard for them to believe this story so can I suggest you do it tomorrow? For now can me and Lulu stay the night? It's been a long day."

"Of course, make both yourselves comfortable," He said with a nod.

"Thank… you." Ziggs yawned.

Ziggs tried to head over to one of the beds, until he took two steps and had to sit back down, fatigue had caught up to him and he was too exhausted to even reach the bed; both Lulu and Pix had already fallen asleep on the sofa, Ziggs positioned himself and smiled at his new ally, he used the sofa's armrest as a pillow and allowed himself to fall asleep.


	6. Bombardment of Magic and Science

**Short-fused Yordles Chapter 6**

It was a very relaxed morning considering what happened the previous night; they were now just drinking tea and eating biscuits inside Heimerdinger's office. Ziggs was sat opposite to the other two yordles, he watched both Heimerdinger and Lulu chatting to their hearts content, their conversation was foreign to him and he felt like a third wheel between them. Even the little fairy, Pix seemed to enjoy Heimerdinger's company as he munched away at one of the biscuits on the table; Ziggs took another sip of his tea, he didn't want to pester Heimerdinger but he did promise to explain everything to Caitlyn and Vi but as Ziggs looked down from the office balcony earlier the entire campus was still infested with police, though there were no signs of the troublesome duo. He was feeling restless, he wanted to leave Piltover as soon as possible and yet here he was pretending as if everything had already been set right in the world, he tapped his fingers on the armrest and sighed loudly, the two yordles and Pix turned to look at him. Ziggs blushed, he didn't mean to attract any attention to himself, it just escaped his mouth, Heimerdinger put down his tea and patted Ziggs on the back, Ziggs felt like he was going to lecture him about something that was a habit of the old yordle.

"Lulu, if you would be as kind as to leave the room for a moment?" asked Heimerdinger. "It seems Ziggs wants to discuss something private."

Lulu and Pix both gave confused looks but nodded and left the room while taking the entire plate of biscuits with them on the way out to the balcony.

"So," Heimerdinger turned to Ziggs. "Some good news for you: It seems a rumour has spread regarding Rumble's current location. Some people 'claimed' to have seen him in Zaun, both sheriff Caitlyn and lady Vi headed over there to investigate. It also appears that they have recruited the talents of Ezreal and Piltover's personal hero. This rumour may have bought you some time you know?"

Ziggs nodded his head, out of the four of them only one had the noble action of taking him in and restoring justice while the other three were probably only there so that they could get a cut of the bounty on Rumble's head. How many more champions were also greedily searching for him? He easily named a few that would begin the chase after hearing about the bounty.

"Professor, how am I going to make it to the Institute?"

Ziggs still haven't formulated his next plan of attack, he considered asking Lulu to use her flight magic to escape Piltover and fly the rest of the way but it would be too much for her, she wouldn't show it to others but using magic would gradually deteriorate a person's stamina, a majority of yordles weren't strong-willed enough to practice magic and if not careful it would corrupt a yordle's mind, Veigar's a prime example of that. Ziggs looked over to the balcony real quick, Lulu had given Pix another biscuit and the fairy seemed to enjoy it, Ziggs hypothesized that before meeting Pix and learning about magic that Lulu's personality would be far different from what it was now and that magic was a way for her to be the kind of yordle she wanted to be, the ability to use magic is tempting after all. He turned back to Heimerdinger, who handed him a piece of paper with an address, the writing was scratchy and some of the letters and numbers were hard to distinguish from one another, Ziggs did recognise the name of the person on the piece of paper and that gave his mind some comfort.

"He is a very good friend of mine, if you need to get away without anybody finding out about your location, he is your man," boasted Heimerdinger. "I wrote to him and explained the situation; he will meet you at that location two in the afternoon, sharp."

Ziggs chuckled; an exit had just revealed itself out of nowhere.

"Oh, one last thing I need to ask professor." Ziggs suddenly said.

"Ah! You wish to know why I was so compliant last night with Lulu's request I assume."

Ziggs was astounded; this was a small sample of Heimerdinger's brilliance at work, even without asking the yordle, he had already figured out what Ziggs planned to ask, the way he even responded so nonchalantly, his brain was that powerful of a machine. If the yordle was any smarter he could probably have to ability to read minds. Heimerdinger sipped his tea as he watched Lulu.

"It may startle you to know this but… I almost killed that innocent girl." Heimerdinger confessed.

Ziggs felt a chill ran up his spine, he stayed silent and took another sip; he saw the elder yordle looking down at his tea, the look of remorse on his face as clear as the day. Was talking about this story painful for him? Ziggs felt slightly guilty.

"I used to share the same view as many yordles when it came to magic. I loathed it, it was unpredictable, unreliable, anytime one would collect results, it would often fluctuate only leaving behind random results that meant nothing," Heimerdinger continued on. "So one day, I was gathering up herbs in the forests by Bandle City, this will make me sound foolish but I had forgotten to bring a compass and naturally, lost my way."

Heimerdinger stopped and took another sip of tea; Ziggs did the same, fully engrossed in the professor's tale.

"That's when I saw her, turning large, feral creatures into harmless, squirrels and plants into cupcakes… they were abominations in my eyes but she carelessly continued on turning anything that caught her attention into her own image of how she viewed our world, her own personal playground." Once again, Heimerdinger stopped and sipped his tea and Ziggs followed suit. "…Is what I thought, in truth I think that back then, she was just lonely even when she had that fairy, she had been missing for centuries after all, how lonely of an existence that must be. I stalked her, holding back my anger then as if the gods had given me the perfect chance, she sat on the edge of a cliff, humming a sweet tune and eating one of her cupcakes, when I got close behind her she felt my presence and asked me why I had been stalking her this entire time, I froze, I got scared of what sort of magic she knew and lied. I said that I was fascinated with what she could do with magic; she went on to explain the wonders of magic, about 'The Glade' and about the Fae spirits, she was so happy and I had a grin the entire time. It was for just a moment, a quick moment but she had let her guard down and that's when I pushed her off the cliff, I saw tears from her eyes as she fell and I immediately regretted that decision and jumped down the cliff as well to try and save her. It's very uncharacteristic of me, is it not? Well I managed to grab hold of her and I shattered a lot of bones during the fall, I thought that I would die and the last face I would see would hate me but instead she thanked me for saving her, she didn't blame me for her fall and she cried for me, me of all people, she healed some of my injuries and flew me off to the hospital. For me, that was a new start as I started to dabble more into techmaturgical advances, the combination of both science and magic to create wondrous new machinery and to Lulu, I'm forever indebted to that girl, anything she asks of me I shall do, no questions asked."

"You're telling that story again, Heimy? Geez," Lulu's voice came from behind Heimerdinger, Ziggs was surprised that she entered without anyone taking notice. "I told you already, I saved you only because Pix told me to."

Heimerdinger smiled, to Ziggs it was like seeing a father proud of his daughter and that's when he decided that he won't ask Lulu to come with him, it was too selfish of him and she had already helped enough last night. Lulu blushed while Pix looked like he was giggling yet made no sound, flying around Heimerdinger's giant afro as the three yordles laughed. After finishing his tea, Ziggs got up and stretched his body, his joints making small pops, he was ready to go out again and escape from Piltover, this time with a proper destination: a workshop in Gyroglide Avenue that specialises in the fixing and maintenance of aeroplanes, as if it wasn't obvious enough how to find the next person. Ziggs said his goodbyes to Heimerdinger and the professor wished him luck for the future, he walked down the steps and peeked at the outside world, the back of the science department was still devoid of any police, strange as it may be, the only challenge now was being able to sneak around the city in broad daylight. He was going to have trouble, wanted posters of Rumble's face was still scattered throughout the city he even saw the news earlier before his departure, the rumour of Rumble's location in Zaun had not convinced some champions, he recognised Twisted Fate and Talon walking past in the background when the news was playing, it seems they were near the business district of Piltover. Ziggs mapped out the entire city of Piltover in his head and the number of places to avoid had drastically increased compared to at night, though he already knew that much. His option had run thin and was getting more irritated the more he thought about it, he would first get away from the campus and snuck his way out and ended up behind the same hedge he hid behind last night. Suddenly someone blew in his ear, Ziggs froze instinctively but he shook off his instincts and ran, it wasn't until the person called out his name that he stopped his panicked pace and came to a halt allowing the person to catch up.

"Ha…ha…why…didn't…you…wait?" Lulu asked, she was panting loudly and Pix patted her back.

"Lulu you don't have to follow me anymore," said Ziggs. "I appreciate your help but you shouldn't get involved with me or you'll be wanted too."

Lulu stopped breathing heavily, she frowned at Ziggs and kicked him on the same leg again and like before, Ziggs applied pressure on his leg. She obviously was not happy about being left and even Pix hit Ziggs on the cheek though it felt more like an ant bite. Ziggs wondered whether she ran all the way down the building hectically searching for him to explain her shortness of breath.

"I don't care; me and Pix are staying." Lulu replied standing her ground, both her and Pix crossed their arms showing their seriousness.

"I don't need your help," he said in a curt tone. "Stay here and have fun with Heimerdinger."

"You still need me!" she shouted back. "You need me, you need me, you need me! You can't move around Piltover freely in the day so I'll help you!"

"H-How?" Ziggs asked, he was withdrawing slowly, he got a bad feeling that whatever Lulu's plan was he wasn't going to like it.

Lulu's devious smile emerged and raised her staff, that was a sign of something incredibly for Ziggs would happen, his eyes grew and tried to run away but it was too late, Lulu pointed her staff at him and chanted, "Adoribus!", Ziggs felt his body change, this was much different to being changed into Rumble, the change was extreme, Ziggs's perception to the world around him changed as he looked up at the now giant Lulu, his body shook as Lulu picked him up and hugged him tight, it was worse than Tristana's hugs, she was incredibly strong now that she was a giant to him with a vice-like grip. Ziggs felt like a guinea pig, someone who has been constantly had his body change, the feeling of being turned into something smaller than a yordle took a toll on his mentality and he felt that he may lose his levelheadedness if he doesn't return to his original body.

"Oh Ziggs, you're so cute when you're a little squirrel!" complimented Lulu her face always seem to lit up when she has something cute in her hands.

'I knew it! This is just great…' Ziggs's inner voice was unamused with this new change though he did recognise the merit behind it, with this Lulu can just carry him to their destination.

He tried to explain to Lulu where to go but as he tried to speak only squeaks came from his mouth, he buried his face in his now tiny paws, another obstacle; Lulu had no idea where to go. Ziggs tried his best changing his squeaks slightly to make it sound like words but the innocent smile on Lulu's face and her constant shrugging just meant that she didn't understand, he grew tired of that and figured that the best way to get to their destination means he would just have to point the way, after breaking free from Lulu's grip he positioned himself on her shoulder and pointed forward and Lulu followed, every street, every intersection he would try and find his way around this maze of a city. Ziggs would even go as far to nibble on to Lulu's shirt if she got distracted, which happened often, it must have looked strange to the humans of Piltover, Lulu was a very recognisable champion of the League but to see her following the directions of a squirrel on her shoulder must've made an impression to the public, some would walk up to her and ask about her and the 'squirrel', others would ask if she could sign some autographs. Lulu couldn't deny these requests but Ziggs could see on people's watches the time, it was already 1:30 in the afternoon, he bit her again and again to remind her that they had a more important obligation and that time was running out. By the time they had finally reached the workshop they were five minutes late, Lulu hunched slowly, depressed that she couldn't enjoy herself, Ziggs was very bossy today and she didn't understand why, she agreed to help him and she thought that he would be happy and yet she felt that everything that she did was wrong in his eyes, her ears drooped and tears formed which she quickly wiped away, Pix smacked Ziggs on the head, now that the fairy was almost the exact same size as him, his punches were a lot stronger. She knocked on the door but no response, she tried again and still no answer.

"No-one's home Ziggs…"she said, downhearted.

'No, someone has to be home, he just has to be…' Ziggs thought.

Ziggs made an action that looked like he was opening the door and Lulu did exactly that, she turned the doorknob and to her surprise it was open, they entered inside the dark building, music was playing from a distant radio, there were hardly any lights to illuminate the building, only small holes in the ceiling allowed any light from the sun to shine through, they found the light switch but it appeared to be broken.

"Hello?" Lulu asked, her voice echoed in the room.

They suddenly heard rattling from inside the darkness and the sound of heavy metal crashing to the ground and finally a voice, a very annoyed and angry voice.

"You're late, you brat!" yelled the voice. "Didn't Heimer tell you that I expect you here by two sharp?"

"S-Sorry, we just got distracted." Lulu apologised to the voice.

'You mean you got distracted.'

This was the thought in Ziggs's mind and he was glad that he wasn't able to speak because he probably wouldn't be able to suppress himself from saying something as mean as that to the very ditzy Lulu. The voice stopped talking and the two can now only hear footsteps that drew away from them accompanied with more clattering, crashes and the distinct sound of an engine that had just been revved up, light from the sun finally emerged when folded doors from the back of the room lifted up and the whole room was now much more visible, the entire place was covered with scrap metal from old planes, tools and toolboxes piled up on one side of the room, it was like a plane graveyard and in the middle of the room was an older yordle white a large, white moustache, he looked drowsy but also pretty mad. He waved for Lulu to come follow him, once outside they noticed his famous R.O.F.L. copter, as well as an assortment of other crazy, flying vehicles on one side of the small runway, Lulu was excited to ride on anyone of them, and on the other side was a normal looking biplane, Lulu's enjoyment didn't last and her head dropped, not finding anything outstanding about their seemingly normal plane.

"Hey Ziggo I don't remember you looking so... girly," Corki said, scratching his chin to see what is so different with Ziggs. "Why did you grow your hair out? Everybody knows that the only hair a man should grow is his beard!"

Lulu realised that Corki was talking about her; she picked Ziggs up and held him in front of Corki hiding her bemused face. Pix looked like he had just asked Lulu a question but she simply nodded her head to give a response, the fairy looked annoyed after that.

"This is Ziggs." She proclaimed.

Corki laughed, he laughed so hard that he wheezed and coughed and was rolling on the floor, tears in his eyes.

"Ziggo, you shouldn't do that, I'm getting old you know, if I keep laughing at your jokes as much as you, I might die one day."

"I-I'm not lying to you, I'm not Ziggs, Corki it's me, Lulu! This squirrel is Ziggs just watch."

Following the same pattern as all the other times, Lulu returned Ziggs back to normal, Heimerdinger must have explained the whole body-swapping with Rumble to Corki because the old yordle didn't seem fazed with what he saw. He nodded his head and jumped on to the driver seat of the biplane, he tossed two more helmets at Ziggs and Lulu, Ziggs put his on immediately but Lulu threw hers away, there was no way she would take off her amazing hat for the ugly looking one made of plastic. Ziggs rolled his eyes at her and jumped on to the back seat as Lulu looked around the plane.

"U-Um, Corki? There's no more seats." She said sounding slightly worried.

"Well no shoot darlin', it's a biplane!" Corki said as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"So where do I sit?"

"Can't you just use your fancy schmancy magic to teleport or fly yourself there?" Corki sounded annoyed; obviously he wasn't a fan of magic.

"Lulu you helped me get out of Piltover and I'm indebted to you but you need to go now." Ziggs's voice almost sounded emotionless.

"No, I don't want to! Heimy told me to go to where I have the most fun and last night when I was wandering around the park, it was fun when I was with Pix but when I bumped into you and you asked me to help you and we ran all around Piltover to reach Heimy, I had even more fun." Lulu looked like she was about to throw a tantrum completely ignoring Corki's snide remark. "And today too, Heimy telling us stories, you turning into a squirrel. I don't want it to end!"

Ziggs sighed, once again he didn't understand the workings inside the female mind, he never even thought about how much she actually wanted to come with him, he didn't even know her reason for her insistence on joining him on his adventure until now. He was a pathetic excuse for a man if he couldn't even see something so obvious. Lulu was now crying though she did try her best to calm herself but the tears flowed like water out of a broken tap while Pix tried his best to console her, seeing her like this reminded Ziggs of Tristana, it broke his heart, he turned to look at Corki his face full of guilt, the two yordles met eye to eye and both nodded.

"Lulu darlin', you could always sit on Ziggs's lap during the flight." Corki suggested as he wiped the tears off his goggles.

"Would that be okay Ziggs?" Lulu asked, her tears stopped and her eyes looked for hope that she could still come.

"Yeah, come on then." Ziggs agreed.

Lulu leaped up from joy but still had to wipe her tear-filled eyes, this time she was crying for another reason. Lulu sat on Ziggs's lap and smiled at him; he blushed slightly and turned away from her. If he wasn't careful he would have to rethink about his relationship with Lulu, he still haven't even solved the 'Tristana problem' and having another problem was something he wasn't looking forward to.

"Fasten your seatbelt guy and gal, we're takin' off!"

Ziggs looked around but saw nothing that looked anything resembling a seatbelt.

"Uh Corki, I can't find the seatbelt."

"That was just an expression! So on hold on to each other tight because this'll be a doozy."

The plane's engine roared to life and began its drive down the small runway increasing speed every second until they were at the end of the run way and the plane flew up into the air, Lulu clung tightly on to Ziggs with one hand and on to her hat with the other, Ziggs could see that she had closed her eyes from fear and Pix was hiding inside her hat but to him it was exciting as he felt the surge of adrenaline in his body. The plane continued to gain altitude until finally the plane levelled off, Lulu opened her eyes again and let go of Ziggs, blushing.

"H-He said hold on tight so I just-"

"It's okay," Ziggs reassured her. "I didn't mind."

* * *

The next day inside the Institute Rumble awoke to find that Tristana was not on her bed and instead a note was left, Rumble picked up the note and chuckled, it was just an apology from her explaining that she had to leave early and that she wants to see him again tonight. Rumble still couldn't believe whether last night was a dream or real, his mind was telling him that it was a dream, that he was an idiot for believing something like that and that could never happen and yet, here he was in her room half-naked. The look of her aroused face will be forever imprinted inside his mind, last night he had found some of her weak points and hopefully tonight, he'll find some more. After getting dressed he made his way to the cafeteria to grab food, he couldn't really interact with any of the champions except for one, and she was away right now and he ended up sitting on a table alone. He took a mouthful of some grey sludge on his plate when he almost choked on the content, it wasn't that the food was bet, it was acceptable but what made him choke was seeing Veigar, stroll inside the cafeteria and headed towards him. Rumble could feel his heart stop, had Veigar already figured out what was stolen from him and he was here to get it back? Veigar sat opposite to where Rumble sat but had his back turned to him, quietly observing everyone else in the room that shifted their eyes to look at the dark yordle himself.

"Are you enjoying your new life?" he asked, he sounded pleased for some reason.

"Of course not, being in this idiot's body is giving a bad case of crazy, I can hardly walk with a blind eye, really the only good thing is that Tristana often worries about me so she's always by my side." Replied Rumble acting as if everything is the same between him and Veigar, he also didn't look at Veigar, keeping his eyes on his food as he talked.

"Well you can't be too picky, I'm just here to ask you if you've seen something that I may have dropped when we met last." He asked nonchalantly.

"Oh yeah? What does it look like?"

"A small vial containing dark-blue liquid, similar to the one that I made you drink."

Rumble scratched his head and made confused looks, continuing to feign ignorance. Veigar was impressed with his acting but he already knew that this rat stole it and yet Veigar can do nothing and just has to wait until 'the other one' shows up and does the job for him, there was no need to dirty his hands after all. Veigar kept up his act in front of Rumble.

"I see, well if you do find it, be sure to hand it to me."

Veigar left the table and left Rumble with his thoughts, he took a deep breath, he was glad that Veigar didn't know that it was him and resumed eating. From Veigar's perspective he could see the face of an ignorant yordle who was bound to a future of unimaginable pain for stealing from him.

"I think it's time to check up on him again."


	7. Ticking Timebomb of Misfits & Convicts

**Short-fused Yordles Chapter 7**

Flying above in the clouds was great but also quite terrifying without seatbelts, Ziggs held on to Lulu while she held on to her large hat, her hair would breeze past his face and he would get strings of her hair in his mouth when he tries to swat them away from time to time, it didn't help that Corki would often do barrel rolls while in mid-flight and after the first fiasco where Lulu almost fell Ziggs wasn't taking any chances. There was hardly any room on the seat as it was being occupied by two yordles, a fae spirit who was asleep and even when awake, refused to fly and Lulu's large wooden staff; whenever the plane jolted the staff would hit Ziggs on the head. Corki on the pilot's seat sang old-timey songs and sometimes reminisced about his past achievements and all the great battles he partook in, only Lulu paid attention to him as Ziggs gazed ahead to see anything that looked like the Institute. It had been nearly two hours since they departed from Piltover and now all they could see were miles of mountain ranges and forests, it stretched all the way to the horizon, he never realised how far the city-states actually were to the Institute, Ziggs donned a calculative look, he had to sneak his way inside the Institute, Lulu had that covered, he told Corki beforehand to find a safe place to land in the forests near the Institute so as to not attract any attention though it would prove to be difficult to find a safe landing spot amidst the sea of trees. The plane's engine was also very loud, louder than Corki's usual copter, would they really go unnoticed? Lulu tapped Ziggs on the head with a concerned look, she pulled out a biscuit from inside her clothes and he gladly accepted even if it didn't look appetising, she smiled at him and he did the same, he wasn't going to do anything that would make Lulu get the wrong idea, she was just an ally who wanted to join him because she has fun with him…

'Oh no.' Ziggs thought, recalling a conversation he had with Tristana before his transformation. '"Did you have a blast when you were hanging out together?" "Yes I did, but now I'm having a blast with you."'

Ziggs was worried, it was exactly the same as Tristana. Ziggs shook his head, there was no way that was a possibility and it was just a mere coincidence nothing more, right?

"…iggs. Ziggs. Ziggs!" Lulu called out.

Ziggs turned his attention to her, being lost completely in his thoughts and ignored anything from the outside world, how long has she been calling out for him, he didn't know.

"What?" he asked as he pushed even more thoughts into the back of his mind.

Lulu leaned in closer, blushing; her voice was quiet and trembled as she spoke,

"I… I…"

Ziggs increasingly got nervous, he didn't want to hear her say it, he didn't want any more complications in his life but covering his ears would be rude to her.

"I have to pee."

Ziggs could hear his inner voice laughing at him, her 'declaration of love' that he panicked over was nothing more than a plea for a toilet break but then that posed the biggest problem: they were several thousand feet in the air on a plane with no facilities. Lulu looked like she was about to 'go' any second. Lulu clutched her stomach and counted down from a hundred but struggled as she got up to ninety.

"Corki, he-!" Ziggs yelled, his voice panicky but Lulu immediately covered his mouth, the plane shook from their struggling and they stopped in case the plane decided to give up on them and just fall.

"You young'uns do that again and I'll turn this plane around and head back to Piltover!" warned Corki.

"Don't tell him, it's embarrassing." She whispered.

"Well you're just going to have to hold it." Ziggs hissed.

"But-But, I caaaaaan't."

Ziggs groaned it was like taking care of a child, a very high maintenance child. He won't be able to help Lulu and asked how long it would take for them to get there.

"I'd say another thirty minutes before we see the Institute and another ten minutes finding a place to land." Corki replied.

Lulu started to take deep breaths but it didn't help, it was coming and fast. Ziggs cried inside, he had no other choice, holding urine inside the bladder could end up being bad for a person's health in the future.

"You two okay back there?" called out Corki who kept his eyes in the sky.

"Yes we're fine Corki. Lulu just do it."

"N-No, I c-can hold it… really." She struggled to even answer him back.

"You're going to hurt yourself if you don't do it."

"You won't hate me if I do?"

"I-I'll be fine." He reassured her, though the trauma of today will probably never leave his mind again.

Those next few seconds were the longest and most embarrassing seconds for either one of them, the feeling of warm urine seeped into his trousers, it was extremely uncomfortable and hearing the trickling sound even worse, Ziggs was glad that the plane was loud enough so that Corki couldn't hear it. He controlled himself and bit hard on his lower lip, it was so disgusting that he wanted to throw up, Lulu was quiet during the whole thing and Pix was still asleep in her hat, if he ever found out about this he would tease her about it forever. When she finally finished they turned to look at each other, they didn't have to say anything, their eyes showed a mutual agreement that they would never talk about this moment to anyone or even mention it again.

"You kids smell somethin'?" Corki suddenly asked, shocking the two of them. "Smells like… asparagus? Are we near a farm or sumfin'?"

Corki peaked down the side of his plane then looked back at the two in the passenger seat, Lulu kept her head down and Ziggs had an uncomfortable look on his face watching the sky almost in a daze.

"Ziggs, you have no boundaries do ya boy?"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, yes she's pretty and all but to do that to a child, shame on you!" scolded Corki. "Even if you are at that age, you can't use my precious plane as your own personal 'Mile High Club'!"

Ziggs blushed at the misunderstanding, Corki had the tendency to talk and this was going to spread, he would be the target of pedophilia jokes for a long time after this. He didn't know what was worse, since the truth was equally as embarrassing, he was in a lose-lose situation, whatever the outcome his reputation would be shot down. He cried again inside and Lulu would whisper sorry every few seconds for the rest of the flight.

* * *

Forty minutes later after scouring the forest Ziggs and Lulu got off the plane, they were in a clearing but the Institute's large structure made it easy to spot even past the taller trees, the two thanked Corki for the ride, Corki sniffed his plane, still trying to find out what the asparagus smell was and they hurriedly ran away before Corki found out. They trudged slowly around the forest, so many trees were close together and thye almost tripped on the many outgrown roots. Ziggs kept his guard up now that he's so close even when Pix volunteered to scout ahead, even Lulu was one step behind him clutching on to her staff and watching her surroundings. The forest was quiet, the sounds of animals or the wind blowing past the trees didn't exist, it was just quiet, an eerie silence, Ziggs scanned the area, he felt that something was wrong and his suspicions were confirmed when he saw a butterfly frozen in mid-air, he touched it and it dropped like a rock and laid limp, unaware of what it happened to it.

"Glad to see you escaped from Piltover," Veigar said who was leaning against one of the trees they had just passed. "And I see you've made an interesting new ally, hello Lulu."

"…H-Hello, Veigy…" Lulu said, she was very hesitant in her answer and avoided any eye contact with Veigar.

"Why are you so cold all of a sudden, Lulu?" Veigar asked with a grin. "I thought that you wanted to "play with me" as you said?"

Veigar drew closer to her but Ziggs stood in front of Lulu as she cowered behind him, he glared at Veigar, whatever these two had in their past was something that had traumatised Lulu to the point that she was shaking like a kitten at the sight of him. Veigar kept his cool expression and stood inches from Ziggs, a condescending look on his face but was still looking at the cowardly Lulu's hat.

"What do you want now Veigar?" Ziggs asked impatiently.

"I just came to check on you and of course to come up with a plan," Replied Veigar, even the tone of his voice was condescending. "I honestly thought you were still in Piltover or you had been arrested but to have Lulu follow you around, quite an accomplishment."

Ziggs didn't appreciate his tone of voice but he did have a good point, without some miracle he would still be stranded in Piltover and all the events that led up to his escape would've never happened if he didn't bump into Lulu that night. Ziggs owed her and if Veigar made Lulu unhappy, he would stand up against the dark yordle. Veigar pointed at Ziggs's trousers with curiosity and laughed, to Veigar he must've looked like an idiot.

"So riding Corki's plane made you piss yourself?" Veigar's laugh was annoying, he was wrong but he wasn't going to admit the truth and Ziggs held his annoyance in. "Or did something else happen in the sky? I could hear that old man's ramblings from here."

"Veigar just shut up!" snapped Ziggs.

"Oh calm down it was just a joke, I know it wasn't really you, it's her am I right?"

Veigar's constant attack on Lulu made Ziggs angry, he wanted to be civil but we was also tempted to punch Veigar to wipe that stupid grin of his. Ziggs could feel Lulu's tears on the back of his shirt and the quiet sounds of sniffling; he was being used as a giant handkerchief.

"What's your problem with her?"

"My problem? I don't have a problem with Lulu, isn't that right Lulu?"

Lulu wouldn't show her face but she nodded her head, Ziggs could feel her hair brush on his back. Ziggs felt sorry for her; he couldn't understand what went on between these two, why she would go as far as to defend his words even when she didn't mean them.

"If you're done patronising us, we still have something to do." Ziggs said as he grabbed Lulu's hand and pushed past Veigar.

Veigar blocked their path with his large gauntlet; when they tried to move the other way he blocked it off with his staff, it was as if he was just here to hurt Lulu and he wasn't finished.

"So Lulu do you still love me?" Veigar asked, completely ignoring Ziggs.

Lulu flinched when Veigar asked his question, she pushed away from Ziggs and ran in the opposite direction of the Institute, she couldn't stop herself anymore and Ziggs could hear her wail as she ran away from them. Ziggs rolled his hands into fists and punched tried to Veigar but inches from punching the dark yordle Ziggs's body was frozen, his anger had finally seeped out and overcame his levelheadedness.

"Hmph…I guess not."

Veigar released Ziggs from his stasis after a few minutes, he lost all feeling in his legs and he was kneeling, the feeling of being frozen in place was strange. Veigar continued to stare in the direction of where Lulu ran off to he then offered his hand to Ziggs. Ziggs slapped it away and got up on his own though did struggle. Being frozen did cool down Ziggs's head, he still hated Veigar but he didn't have the need to hit him anymore.

The two yordles began to discuss their next strategy to get Rumble out of the Institute, with Lulu gone, simply being turned into a squirrel to get in and isolating Rumble to catch him was no longer an option, Ziggs didn't really feel like discussing anything to Veigar but he was here for a reason and he was willing to go along with Veigar's plans if it involved not being associated with him anymore for a second longer. He wanted to check on her, to see if she was alright but searching the forest would be wasting more time, time that Ziggs couldn't afford to waste, she still had Pix and that gave him some comfort. Ziggs pulled out the vial that Veigar had handed him back in Piltover, the dark-blue liquid oozed when he tilted the vial, Veigar told him back in Piltover not to drink the contents but why? Was this the same as the blue bottle from before? Would he transform into another yordle other than Rumble? Veigar was insistent to get back the other vial; he would even betray Rumble to get it back, but if that was true then what was in the vial that Ziggs held on to and why did Veigar hand him one? A placebo, maybe? More questions popped in and the answers for them was scarce or unknown, Ziggs could rack his brain on this puzzling dilemma but it would end up fruitless when even Veigar would dismiss the vial that he handed to Ziggs when Ziggs mentioned it. Rustling in the bushes caused Veigar to grab hold of his staff; Ziggs looked in the general direction of the rustling but ignored it.

"It must be just an animal." Ziggs said.

"No you fool everything native in the forest is still frozen in stasis I made sure of that, it's not an animal, get up!" ordered Veigar.

The rustling continued, it got closer and closer and from the brush Teemo emerged, Teemo shot his darts at the two and Veigar shot a ball of dark matter at him but Teemo was too fast and Ziggs pulled Veigar's staff away, the dark matter hit one of the nearby trees, the darts had missed their target, Teemo wasn't as sharp of a shot as before but he looked to be in much better shape than the last time they met; he must've escaped the prison along with the convicts and has managed to avoid trouble like Ziggs. Veigar gritted his teeth, the sight of Teemo annoyed him, he stared into Teemo's narrow eyes that always looked closed, he couldn't tell whether he was looking back. Teemo moved again and shot his darts this time only aimed at Ziggs, he knew the reason why, Teemo most likely wanted revenge on Rumble for ruining his life, it was like that time they fought but this time he didn't have his bombs to protect him. Ziggs dodged the barrage of darts and Veigar continued to shoot dark matter, the balls of dark matter had demolished the nearby trees and the tress began to fall, Ziggs was now dodging both darts and trees thanks to Veigar's 'help'.

"Just freeze him already!" yelled Ziggs.

"Gladly." Veigar agreed.

Veigar froze Teemo, his darts also frozen in mid shot, Veigar and Ziggs stripped him of anything that could be used to kill them and Veigar obliterated them with his magic. Ziggs ordered Veigar to release him but upon doing so, Teemo lunged at Ziggs and tried to strangle him and Veigar froze him again, getting Teemo to agree to listen was tough enough with Ziggs being in Rumble's body but having Veigar foul mouth Teemo didn't help the situation, Veigar _really_ didn't like Teemo. If Veigar wasn't here Lulu would come back and show Teemo the truth and that one demonstration could probably explain more than what Ziggs could tell him. They were now stuck with deciding what to do with Teemo and planning Rumble's capture, the more Rumble was mentioned the more Teemo was intrigued.

"We can always use Tristana to lure Rumble out." Veigar suggested.

"No. I won't let you use her just because you're getting impatient," Ziggs said coldly, the last thing he wanted to do was use Tristana. "Plus if we kidnap her he'll know that we're here, we need to get him when he's alone, surprise him."

"If only there was someone we know who can turn invisible to help us…" Veigar said scratching his chin; he was obviously referring to Teemo.

Teemo looked to be in a better mood and Ziggs told Veigar to unfreeze him again, Veigar was sceptical but did so anyways. Teemo didn't react, he just sat there and glared at the two of them, shifting his eyes to one then the other, it felt like they were being interrogated with his eyes, Ziggs saw Veigar looking ready to come and rip Teemo's eyes out, he didn't attack them and that was a good sign that maybe he was willing to listen.

"What's going on?" Teemo asked prompting Ziggs to turn his attention back to Teemo. "Lure out Rumble? Use Tristana? You're not making any sense. Just what are you two planning?"

"Bombarding us with questions already, where should we start?" Veigar turned to Ziggs and whispered. "I didn't plan for Teemo to escape the lowest level of the prison but he may be of some help to us."

"I guess we can start with what happened after I visited you in prison." Ziggs told Teemo.

"No that was Ziggs and Tristana but tell me how did you find out about that, you eavesdropping rodent?!" retaliated Teemo.

"Teemo would you believe me if I told you I'm Ziggs inside Rumble's body?" asked Ziggs.

"Oh sure, if I was an idiot." Teemo answered in an unamused tone.

Veigar laughed; obviously he was on no one's side and asking him for help was a non-option when dealing with Teemo. Ziggs didn't want to deal with Teemo's attitude and for the next fifteen minutes he explained his story just like to everyone else previous to Teemo, Ziggs was getting used to telling this story by now. Ziggs knew in his mind that he was going to betray Veigar but he needed to play along until then, he explained to Teemo the importance of the vial, what it may contain and how the liquid inside was the reason for his transformation, he left out anything involving Veigar's plan, only explaining that the vial is dangerous to someone like Rumble, Veigar agreed and nodded his head at everything Ziggs said as he was explaining the situation. After he finished, Teemo was still silent, he looked confused but agreed to listen more to what Ziggs and Veigar had to say. Ziggs relaxed a bit, if they could get Teemo's help then that's a powerful ally, in his mind, Ziggs still thought about Veigar's grand scheme, that vial with Rumble must be so important to Veigar's plans so if that vial was destroyed would Veigar's plans ultimately fail in the process?

"I see, so Ziggs what happens when we get the vial?" Teemo was finally on board with their plan to get Rumble.

"Hand it over to Veigar and he'll give me back my body."

"And what's Veigar going to do with it?"

"I'll dispose of it," Veigar lied, he was good at that. "It's too dangerous and I have already seen what it can do to someone like Rumble."

"Hmmm, I see. So what's in it for me?"

"I'll stop you from going back to prison after this is all over." Veigar looked to disagree but he knew that they needed Teemo's cooperation and held his tongue.

As the three yordles continued their discussion, more rustlings came, everyone kept their guard up, anybody from now on was an enemy. From the brush Pix popped out and the three sighed in relief, thinking that it might have been an actual threat, they dropped their guard when the fairy drew closer but that was a mistake and that's when cannonballs shot out of the brush aimed at all three, Veigar was careless and directly got hit on the chest, he clutched his chest to stop the burning pain from getting worse whilst the other cannonballs had just grazed both Ziggs and Teemo. She emerged from the brush, somebody who Ziggs haven't seen in a while, she held her cannon effortlessly and pointed it at them, from behind her Lulu peaked at the three yordles, her eyes were red from crying. The white-haired yordle's eyes were fierce and angry; obviously she didn't appreciate seeing her friend cry and came to her aid. She stopped and her eyes grew from the realisation of who she just shot at. In her eyes she saw Rumble, Veigar and Teemo and she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"…Teemo? Veigar? Rumble…"

"Lulu what did you tell her?" asked Veigar, who was struggling to stand.

Lulu hid behind her and Tristana patted her on the head to calm her down.

"She told me that you were here Veigar and you were causing trouble for her, didn't I warn you before to stay away from Lulu? You've hurt her enough."

She pointed her cannon at the defenceless Veigar but decided against it, seeing him struggle and pointed her cannon at Teemo next.

"Teemo… why are you with them? Why did you escape the prison?" she sounded like she pitied him for being seen with them.

"It's hard to explain, I'm sorry but I can't tell you anything." Teemo said, looking down on the ground.

"Okay don't tell me, I'm just glad to see you're okay."

"…Thanks Trist."

Tristana then pointed her cannon at Ziggs, even before she asked him she fired another shot without warning, the cannonball hit Ziggs on the leg, it was painful but he stifled his cry of pain.

"You. Explain. Now." Her tone towards Ziggs was harsh, she wasn't going to listen to him if he explained everything to her, she would completely disregard everything he said, that's the hate he saw from her eyes.

"W-Wait Tristana you don't understand, that's not Rumble!" Lulu told her friend.

"Lulu not now, I have personal business with him."

"Listen to her Tristana, I'm not Rumble."

"Shut up! You've hurt Teemo and Ziggs, threatened to destroy everything Heimerdinger worked hard for and released convicts in our city, I have nothing more to say to you. You… you… I hate you and just die!"

She aimed her cannon at Ziggs again, ready to fire without hesitation when Lulu struck her on the back of her head with her staff, Tristana landed face first on the ground, her face was confused as to why her friend would do that to her then she blacked out, Lulu threw her staff on the floor scared at what she had just done, the three males looked at Lulu then at the unconscious Tristana then back to her.

"I-I didn't mean to, she didn't want to listen to the truth and I panicked and so I-I-I, "Lulu stuttered frantically trying to defend herself.

"It's okay, it's better this way. Thanks for saving me Lulu." Ziggs said and patted her on the back, she gave a small smile but she still wasn't proud of what she did, she saw Veigar glare at her and she hid behind Ziggs again.

"Well we're in a mess now, what do we do about Tristana?" asked Teemo.

Teemo and Ziggs both turned to Veigar without question that Veigar had something up his sleeve.

"What?!" Veigar asked with a raised voice.

"We know how good you are with manipulation you've probably got some sick plan involving her, so spill it." Teemo and Ziggs said in unison.

Veigar was quiet, they weren't wrong that he did have a plan, a great plan to say the least. He laughed, his laugh showed his very being, malevolent, evil and sly and huddled them together to show them his next scheme.


	8. Waterworks

**Short-fused Yordles Chapter 8**

Lulu paced back and forth as she guarded the still unconscious Tristana, the three male yordles had tied her up and had headed towards the Institute to initiate Veigar's plan, earlier as they listened to the entirety of it they silently agreed that it was truly brilliant, everything and anything that could happen was accounted for by Veigar and he had different insurances to deal with situations that may occur. Lulu knew that Veigar was brilliantly smart already, she was afraid of Veigar now but back then when he was alone mumbling to himself, she would always often look over his shoulder to see what he was doing and prodded him to talk to her, she had always been curious about him and when she and Pix talked to him for the first time he was cold and harsh, he often gave her the cold shoulder and said how much of a nuisance she was but she persevered, she wanted to talk to him, she wanted him to open up to her it was as if she drawn to him, maybe it was because he was the only other yordle she knew that studied magic so he could relate to all her troubles, "he couldn't be such a bad guy" is what she thought. Eventually, he grew fond of her, he accepted her and when he was no longer annoyed by her presence he asked her to accompany him out in the world, he took her to shady markets of different city states, unbeknownst to the government that these markets existed in the first place. These markets sold weird, different and most likely, illegal magical items, it was scary at first for her, Lulu felt that everyone there were just evil people who bought these items to do bad deeds but the more she hung around Veigar the more she found out that even though the items were illegal, they created something that conventional magic would deem impossible, one that she was most interested in was the power to bring back people from the dead. Veigar sought the opportunity to show her this by bringing her mother and father back from the grave thinking that it would impress her, their skeletons rose from the ground, flesh, organs and then fur formed around the skeletons and though it did make her smile, the more she talked to them the more obvious it became that they were merely reanimated shells of who they once were, it hurt her inside to see them this way and asked Veigar to stop the spell but as Veigar chanted to stop the dead but they resisted, they clung on to Lulu who wanted her to come with them; their once happy faces turned demonic and their bodies gyrated and shifted to form something that barely resembled yordles, she was scared and confused, she loved them but they were no longer her parents and refused to go. With Pix's help, she shot her parents' corpses with her magic and reduced them to ash. The pain of seeing that would never heal in Lulu's heart and though she knew that Veigar was not responsible for what happened she grew scared of him, the many times he would apologise for what happened she would avoid him, one day he finally understood that there was nothing left to discuss, he shut himself back in his own solitude until finally he was gone from her life.

Lulu shook the painful memories away and watched her unconscious friend, she didn't want anything to happen to her anymore, Lulu wanted her to be safe but she was an integral piece of the plan. Pix floated around Lulu trying his best to cheer her up and she did until she heard the groans from Tristana waking up which put her back on high alert and reminded herself that they weren't here to play games. Tristana was groggy and her vision was blurred, all she could see were colours, purple and red, she couldn't move her body but felt the texture of rope coiled around her and then she remembered what happened to her, her friend's betrayal.

"Lulu?" she asked. "Lulu, why?"

Lulu yelped and she turned to Pix who shook his head telling her not to say anything. Tristana squinted her eyes now she was able to see her curled hat and her long purple hair but Lulu's face was still blurred to her.

"Why won't you answer me? Did I do something to hurt you Lulu? I just wanted to tell Veigar to stay away from you and then… Rumble… Teemo…"

"T-Tristy," Lulu finally said even after Pix's many protests. "I can't tell you anything; Veigar said that you don't need to know."

"Veigar? Lulu why are you listening to what Veigar has to say again?"

Lulu wasn't used to being bombarded with so many questions, not realising that she also does this to other people too. Even to her she didn't understand why she would listen to Veigar, she was scared of him of course but she could have just easily left, when she ran away why did she bother telling Tristana about Ziggs's and Veigar's location and come back? Yet she was still here following his orders, she asked herself why in her head over and over again, it didn't make any sense to her, she didn't have a reason to return here did she?

"I don't know! I don't know, I don't know, I don't know! I. DON'T. KNOW. WHY. OKAY?!" she screamed, she wanted it all to make sense but it was useless.

Tristana fell silent, even Lulu didn't know herself, Tristana felt like the bad person here that she pressed her friend to questions she didn't even know the answer to, 'she was just a victim like her and Teemo to Rumble and Veigar's plan, Lulu was only forced to do these things by them' is what Tristana had made up in her mind.

"I'm sorry Lulu," she apologised. "I didn't mean to ask so many questions, I'll save you from them don't worry."

"Save me?"

"Yep, so can you untie these ropes? I'll get help from the League and I can explain that you were just forced to do their bidding." Tristana persuaded.

"Don't you dare you stupid girl." Veigar's cold tone of voice said from behind her.

Veigar walked over to the two yordles, he scowled at Lulu but paid no attention to Tristana, he grabbed hold of Lulu's arm and tried to drag her away back in the direction he just came from but she struggled and pointed her staff at Veigar.

"Don't touch me! Shoot 'im Pix!" she screamed, Pix followed her order and shot at Veigar, the dark yordle had been caught off-guard again but had just barely dodged Pix's attack.

Veigar raised his staff and a ball of anti-matter fell from the sky and hit Lulu leaving behind a small crater from the blast and a slightly scorched Lulu in the middle. Tristana struggled to get the ropes off, even without her cannon she could take on Veigar with just her strength but it was no use, she called out to Lulu telling her to run away from him but Lulu just sat in the middle of the crater crying. Veigar drew closer to her once again, he grabbed hold of Lulu's arm this time with a tighter grip, he could see the pain she was in but he didn't care and gritted his teeth.

"Get up Lulu!" Veigar ordered her but her wailing was louder than Veigar and she ignored anything he said to her.

Veigar's patience had finally run out and pointed her staff at the defenceless Lulu, his eyes showed no signs of sympathy for her. He then shot a ball of dark matter at Lulu point-black and she let out a blood curdling scream, it was agonising to hear and even more painful to watch, Tristana had to look away, tears in her eyes, she was useless, she was right here watching this unfold and she could do nothing but turn away. Lulu's staff had exploded into pieces and she laid limp on the ground barely conscious, Pix had passed out from the blast, she turned to look at her friend's unconscious body even when it hurt to move any part of her body and apologised to him even when she knew that he would never hear it, she apologised for not running away when he advised her to, for listen to Veigar's plan and being part of it and for not being able to save him even now in the most desperate of times.

"What a stupid girl." Veigar said, he could see her crying face and kicked her in the stomach and watched Lulu groan in pain, to Veigar, that felt good.

"Stop it already Veigar! Just stop it!" yelled Tristana.

Veigar turned to her an evil grin on his face, he drew closer to her his staff pointed right at her when suddenly Ziggs held on to Veigar's arm and Teemo stood in front of Tristana, arms stretched. Veigar turned to his 'allies', have they already completed the task that he gave them?

"Don't you dare." Both Teemo and Ziggs said in unison their voices were firm and full of authority.

"Are you betraying me already?" asked Veigar coolly.

"No one's betraying anybody…yet," answered Teemo. "You don't even have a single compassionate bone in your body, do you Veigar? Attacking Lulu, sometimes I want to know what goes on in that maniacal little head of yours."

Veigar laughed, he laughed so hard and so long that he was beginning to wheeze and wiped tears off his eyes.

"No, you don't," he said harshly. "She fired her magic first; I had to retaliate to defend myself."

Ziggs came close to punching Veigar, his fist just inches from Veigar's face but he stopped, this time it wasn't Veigar's doing, Ziggs bottled his hate in, he wouldn't descend to Veigar's level and retracted his fist. He pushed past Veigar and knelt down to take care of the injured Lulu, Ziggs brushed his hand past his mohawk, he had no knowledge of first aid apart from how to deal with burns and Lulu looked nearly half dead. Ziggs held her upper body up even when he knew that it wouldn't help, this was his entire fault, he owed a lot to Lulu and he knew that getting Lulu to listen to Veigar even when she was afraid of him was a bad idea, he didn't even know how what was in these two's past and yet he still convinced her to work with him, it was a really bad idea and yet his selfishness to get Rumble and return to his body clouded his judgement. He didn't have these complicated emotions before, he had no need to, he had his bombs and he was content but now it was different.

"Ziggs…" Lulu voice was weak and quiet but everyone could still here her in the eerily quiet forest. "I'm so… sorry Ziggs…"

"I-It's fine Lulu, really," Ziggs said trying his best to keep calm but his eyes were tearing up already. "You'll be fine, we'll get you help."

"I just need… to sleep, that's all… don't… worry." Lulu struggled to answer back but still managed to smile at Ziggs.

Lulu looked at the crying blue yordle and placed her hand on his cheek, she could still recall when she was left out in the same state when she first found out that centuries had passed except that time there was none there to cry for her; all those stares from different people, cautious not to get close, scared of what she could do, envy that she had this power and anger when she harmlessly used it to play with the children, it was what made her feel like a freak, an outcast, it was the reason why she joined the League and became a champion, she wanted to run away from those stares and she finally had a home and friends who weren't afraid and were even impressed with her powers. She moved her fingers telling Ziggs to move his head closer, Ziggs did as he was asked and she lightly kissed him on the cheek, Ziggs looked at her weak smile, he smiled back not fully understanding why she kissed him but was okay with not finding out the truth and as for Lulu, she finally found the answer to the questions. Lulu then turned to Veigar whose expression didn't seem to change, a small part of her still liked him and wished that everything would return back to normal between the two of them but the scar she left in his heart was now too deep.

"What is it pest?!" he asked, getting annoyed from her staring.

"I'm sorry Veigy…"

"What exactly are you apologising for? The fact that watching fall unconscious is another second of wasted time or that you won't do as you're told?"

"Everything… even back then… what I did to you even when… it wasn't your fault… I'm so, so sorry." Lulu said, finally closing her eyes and passing out.

Veigar was taken back; he felt remorse but hid it with his cold attitude, he would never show what he really felt, not with these people, not that they would care anyway. Inside his guilt ate away at him, Lulu approached him and befriended him, she was stupid, ignorant, ditzy all qualities Veigar hated in a person and yet… she managed to grow on him. He wanted to carry her away, take her back to someone who could heal the wounds he's inflicted on her, but when he took a few steps he immediately stopped and watched Ziggs's idiotic, crying face; he knew that he wasn't allowed to take another step, it was like watching a still image and all he could do was watch and nothing could disrupt this sad moment.

"Teemo, why is this happening?" Tristana asked who was also crying. "Why is everyone hurting each other?"

Teemo was silent but even he knew the answer.

"Because we let our emotions get the better of us," he replied after a long pause. "Just like how I attacked him because I was jealous, Veigar was probably mad at himself for what he did but projected his anger at Lulu."

"Why are you helping them?"

"Revenge. I'm going to make Rumble pay for ruining my life." Teemo's eyes turned dark for a moment before returning to normal.

"Rumble's right there! Why won't you do anything about it?"

Tristana didn't know anything and that was understandable but Teemo found answering all of her questions tedious and decided to explain it the way he knew best; by making her fill in the blanks.

"You can't see it can you Trist?" Teemo was looking at Ziggs and Lulu. "When they told me I didn't believe it either but seeing this, I now know that what they said was the truth."

"What, you expect me to believe that _he's_ Ziggs?" Tristana scoffed.

"Think about it, Rumble famously known for his hatred of magic is working with Veigar and is crying for Lulu. Don't you find that strange?"

"There has to be a different explanation than that! There has to be…" She didn't want to listen anymore to Teemo's ridiculous claim but Teemo wasn't prepared to back down.

"Trist, think about it, the _Ziggs _back at the Institute wasn't acting strange or peculiar at all? Like, unsure about some things that he should've known about?"

Tristana gasped, she remembered that he was unsure when she asked the question about what they should do for their first 'date'. She looked at _Rumble_ who was still crying, it was true, he didn't resemble any of Rumble's habits, whoever the blue yordle in front of her was it was definitely not Rumble. Tristana then realised that if it was all true then the Ziggs she shared a romantic and unforgettable evening with was not the real Ziggs, she grinded her teeth, she wasn't the type of girl who would just cry after being lied to, she was going to take action and it starts with kicking that little rat right in the teeth.

* * *

**Earlier that night…**

Rumble paced back and forth inside Ziggs's room, the agreed time for Tristana to show was fast approaching and Rumble had no idea what to do tonight, were they just going to do exactly what they did last night, he blushed not that he would turn down the idea but because there must be something else for them to do, he loved Tristana but finding something in common with her was difficult without her finding out about the truth. Rumble groaned, no inspiration came to mind, this wasn't the only thing he was worried about, there was still Veigar, who was still missing ever since this morning, Rumble noticed that he had been acting strangely but when asked about the vial that Veigar lost, Veigar didn't seem to know that it was him who stole it, that's not where his troubles ended as Rumble heard rumours from officers Caitlyn and Vi who returned from Bandle City who claimed they spotted Teemo but had no hard evidence to support this, Rumble guessed that Teemo had managed to escape within the flood of convicts. Rumble didn't even know what happened to Ziggs, Veigar assured him that everything will be taken care of but Rumble didn't understand what he meant by that, it was always difficult to understand him and he guessed no one ever would. He waited another ten minutes, his eyes fixated on the clock and wondered where she was, he looked outside the window, the edge of the forest was illuminated dimly by Heimerdinger's techmaturgical light orbs, the use of magic and science was just wrong in Rumble's opinion. He gazed out, there wasn't much to look at, and several champions were headed back to their city-states, he wished he could go back to Bandle City, he did miss his shack and Tristy, one visit couldn't hurt, but admittedly he was scared of leaving the Institute just in case Veigar found the truth.

Rumble was suddenly hit with a stone on his forehead, he rubbed the spot that was hit and scanned the area for the culprit, he froze when he saw who it was, Teemo, looking up at window, he had his back turned away from the Institute and walked inside the forest. Rumble felt the sweat, Teemo had definitely escaped and was now targeting him but what was the reason for throwing the stone at him? Was it some sort of challenge to fight him like a man inside the forest? Rumble wasn't a fool, there was no way he would agree to something like that and now that Teemo revealed himself he can just alert the guards and return him back to prison. Rumble laughed at his plan when once again he was hit on the head, this time it was a crumpled piece of paper, Rumble looked for Teemo again but it wasn't him this time, there was no one Rumble could see who could have thrown the note, 'no one he could see…' Rumble had a sudden realisation and uncrumpled the piece of paper; the inside of the note was Tristana's handwriting with only seven words: "Captured inside the forest. Save me Ziggs." and a lock of her hair. Even though it was her handwriting it was devoid of any emotion, this was a trap and a very obvious one at that, despite his best judgement Rumble had to save her, inside that forest were two, possibly three people who is after his head, he shut the window and planned his approach.

"Oh Ziggs, you think I'm gonna fall for something this stupid?" Rumbles asked himself rhetorically. "Okay if this is your invitation then… this'll be a blast."

From inside the forest Ziggs and Teemo nodded at one another as they headed back.

"Think he'll fall for it?" asked Teemo.

"He's not an idiot, he'll come hitting and hit hard. But we lit his 'fuse' so there's no way that he won't show," Ziggs explained. "How did you manage to forge Tristana's handwriting?"

"When you're with the person you love long enough… you tend to notice things," Teemo said, embarrassed with his very creepy skill. "Also I noticed how friendly you're getting with Lulu, I'll hurt you if you make Tristana cry Ziggs, I did it once and I'm not afraid to do it again."

"Lulu is just… Lulu," Ziggs couldn't even give a word to describe her. "Don't worry, I need to sort my feelings out for Tristana first then handle Lulu."

"I hope you're not taking this lightly, what if they both get hurt, what then?"

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that, eh?"


End file.
